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Union  Theological  Seminary, 
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Union  Theological  Seminary 

(New  York,  N.Y. ) 
The  Edward  Robinson  chair  o 

Biblical  theology  in  the 


[PRICE  FIFTY  CENTS.)  ....      „       , 

JUL  10  19],<] 


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THE 


EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 


OF 


BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY 


UNION   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


NEW  YORK 


PRINTED   FOR 

®b*   Union   (Ideological    Seminars 

NEW   YORK:  MDCCCXCI 


THE 


EDWARD    ROBINSON    CHAIR 


BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 


JUL  10  1919 

the  ^ipoim  st^ 


EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 


OF 


BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY 


IN  THE 


VUNION   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


NEW  YORK 


PRINTED   FOR 

®l)e    Union    geological    Seminarn 

NEW  YORK  :  MDCCCXCI 


Copyright,  1S91,  by 
THE   UNION   THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY. 


I.  The  Establishment  of  the  Chair  by  the  Directors  of 
the  Seminary  in  accordance  with  the  endowment  of 
Charles  Butler,  LL.D. ;  and  the  choice  of  the  incum- 
bent, Prof.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D. 

II.  The  Inauguration  Services,  January  20, 1891 ;  with  the 
Charge  delivered  by  the  Rev.  David  R.  Frazer,  D.D. 

III.  The  Inaugural   Address,  on    The  Authority  of  Holy 

Scripture. 

IV.  The  Position  and  Importance  of  Biblical  Theology. 


I. 


THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE    EDWARD 

ROBINSON   CHAIR   OF   BIBLICAL 

THEOLOGY 

At  the  regular  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  held  November  n,  1890,  the  following  pream- 
ble and  resolution  were  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote  : 

Whereas,  The  Honorable  Charles  Butler,  LL.D.,  President 
of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  this  Seminary,  has  made  provision 
for  a  permanent  fund  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  en- 
dowing a  Chair  in  this  Seminary,  to  be  called  the  Edward  Rob- 
inson Chair  of  Biblical  Theology ; 

Now  therefore,  Resolved,  That  a  new  professorship  shall  be 
and  is  hereby  created,  which  shall  be  called  the  "  Edward  Rob- 
inson Chair  of  Biblical  Theology ";  that  the  income  of  the 
endowment  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  given  to  this 
-Seminary  by  the  said  Charles  Butler  in  the  manner  mentioned 
in  his  bond,  dated  April  25,  1890,  shall  be  applied  solely  to  the 
support  of  said  Chair,  according  to  the  provisions  of  said  bond. 

The  President  of  the  Faculty  suggested  that  the 
Board,  in  courtesy,  should  ask  Dr.  Butler  to  express 
to  us  freely  his  wishes  with  reference  to  the  action  just 
taken. 


2  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

Thereupon  President  Butler  addressed  the  Board  of 
Directors  as  follows : 

"  The  formal  establishment  by  the  Board  of  '  The 
Edward  Robinson  Chair  of  Biblical  Theology'  fulfils 
the  object  desired  in  the  provision  which  I  have  made 
for  its  endowment.  I  beg  to  express  my  satisfaction 
and  gratitude  for  this  action.  It  is  in  accord  with  the 
views  of  the  distinguished  Christian  scholar  in  whose 
memory  the  Chair  is  founded.  In  a  letter  to  the  Board, 
dated  January  20,  1837,  accepting  the  Professorship  of 
Sacred  Literature,  he  said :  '  The  Constitution  prop- 
erly requires  every  Professor  to  declare  that  he  believes 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be 
the  Word  of  God,  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  This  is  placing  the  Bible  in  its  true  position 
as  the  only  foundation  of  Christian  theology.  It  fol- 
lows as  a  necessary  consequence  that  the  study  of  the 
Bible,  as  taught  in  the  department  of  Biblical  Litera- 
ture, must  be  the  foundation  of  all  right  theological 
education.'  This  new  Chair  of  Biblical  Theology  seems 
to  me  to  realize  the  sentiment  embodied  in  this  quota- 
tion, in  a  form  which,  if  he  were  now  present  with  us, 
would  receive  his  benediction.  It  embalms  his  memory 
indissolubly  with  the  life  of  this  Seminary,  and  will 
ever  be  an  inspiration  to  its  students  in  their  '  search 
of  the  Scriptures.' 

"  In  regard  to  the  incumbent  of  this  Chair,  I  avail  of 
the  courtesy  of  the  Board  to  express  my  wish  that  it 
may  be  one  who  sat  as  a  pupil  at  the  feet  of  that  emi- 
nent teacher,  and  I  regard  it  as  a  felicity  to  the  Semi- 
nary that  there  is  one  here  who  has  been  trained  within 
its  walls,  and  who,  by  his  ripe  scholarship  and  purity  of 
character  in  Christian  faith  and  practice,  has  won  the 
confidence  and  affection  of  his  associate  Professors,  of 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  3 

this  Board  of  Directors,  and  of  the  students  who  have 
come  under  his  teaching  during  these  years  of  faithful 
and  devoted  service. 

"  From  what  I  have  said,  you  will  anticipate  that  my 
wishes  will  be  fully  gratified  in  the  appointment  of  the 
Rev.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  as  eminently  qualified  to 
fill  this  Chair.  In  this  expression  of  preference,  it  gives 
me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  say  that  I  do  but  voice  the 
views  and  wishes  of  our  late  revered  President  of  the 
Faculty,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock.  Dr.  Briggs  was  his 
choice  for  this  Chair. 

"  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  highest  interests  of  this 
Seminary,  and,  what  is  more,  those  of  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom  on  earth,  will  be  promoted  by  this  realization 
of  the  plans  of  these  two  Christian  scholars,  both  as  re- 
gards the  foundation  of  the  Chair  and  the  selection  of 
the  suggested  incumbent." 


THE   APPOINTMENT   OF  THE   INCUMBENT. 

At  the  conclusion  of  President  Butler's  address, 
Henry  Day,  Esq.,  offered  the  following  resolution, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That  Professor  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  be  trans- 
ferred from  the  Davenport  Professorship  of  Hebrew  and  the 
Cognate  Languages  to  the  Edward  Robinson  Chair  of  Biblical 
Theology. 

Professor  Briggs,  having  been  duly  advised  of  the 
action  above  recorded,  addressed  a  communication  to 
the  Board,  under  date  of  January  7,  1891,  accepting  the 
new  Chair  to  which  he  had  been  transferred. 


4  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

120  West  93D  St.,  New  York, 
January  7,  1891. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Directors    of  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York  : 

I  thank  you  for  the  mark  of  confidence  expressed  in 
your  choice  of  me  to  fill  the  Edward  Robinson  Profes- 
sorship of  Biblical  Theology.  There  is  no  Chair  that 
so  well  suits  my  tastes  and  my  studies  for  the  past 
twenty-five  years.  Under  the  advice  of  the  Faculty,  I 
have  been  building  up  the  department  of  Biblical  The- 
ology for  some  years  past.  But  I  had  reached  the 
limit  of  new  work.  I  could  not  advance  further  until 
relieved  of  the  Hebrew  work.  In  accepting  the  new 
Chair,  I  propose  to  push  the  work  of  the  depart- 
ment rapidly  forward,  and  to  cover  the  whole  ground 
of  the  Chair  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible.  I  give  over 
the  work  of  the  Hebrew  Chair  to  my  pupil,  colleague, 
and  friend,  Dr.  Brown,  with  confidence,  that  building 
on  the  foundations  I  have  laid,  he  will  make  marked 
improvement  upon  my  work. 

Biblical  Theology  is,  at  the  present  time,  the  vantage 
ground  for  the  solution  of  those  important  problems  in 
religion,  doctrine,  and  morals  that  are  compelling  the 
attention  of  the  men  of  our  times.  The  Bible  is  the 
Word  of  God,  and  its  authority  is  divine  authority  that 
determines  the  faith  and  life  of  men.  Biblical  scholars 
have  been  long  held  in  bondage  to  ecclesiasticism  and 
dogmatism.  But  modern  Biblical  criticism  has  won  the 
battle  of  freedom.  The  accumulations  of  long  periods  of 
traditional  speculation  and  dogmatism  have  been  in  large 
measure  removed,  and  the  Bible  itself  stands  before  the 
men  of  our  time  in  a  commanding  position,  such  as  it 
never  has  enjoyed  before.     On  all  sides  it  is  asked,  not 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  5 

what  do  the  creeds  teach,  what  do  the  theologians  say, 
what  is  the  authority  of  the  Church,  but  what  does  the 
Bible  itself  teach  us  ?  It  is  the  office  of  Biblical  Theology 
to  answer  this  question.  It  is  the  culmination  of  the  work 
of  Exegesis.  It  rises  on  a  complete  induction  through 
all  the  departments  of  Biblical  study  to  a  comprehen- 
sive grasp  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  in  the  unity  and 
variety  of  the  sum  of  its  teaching.  It  draws  the  line 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible.  It  fences  off  from  the 
Scriptures  all  the  speculations,  all  the  dogmatic  elabo- 
rations, all  the  doctrinal  adaptations  that  have  been  made 
in  the  history  of  doctrine  in  the  Church.  It  does  not 
deny  their  propriety  and  importance,  but  it  insists  up- 
on the  three-fold  distinction  as  necessary  to  truth  and 
theological  honesty,  that  the  theology  of  the  Bible  is 
one  thing,  the  only  infallible  authority ;  the  theology 
of  the  creeds  is  another  thing,  having  simply  ecclesias- 
tical authority ;  and  the  theology  of  the  theologians, 
or  Dogmatic  Theology,  is  a  third  thing,  which  has  no 
more  authority  than  any  other  system  of  human  con- 
struction. It  is  well  known  that  until  quite  recent  times, 
and  even  at  present  in  some  quarters,  the  creeds  have 
lorded  it  over  the  Scriptures,  and  the  dogmaticians 
have  lorded  it  over  the  creeds,  so  that  in  its  last  analy- 
sis the  authority  in  the  Church  has  been,  too  often,  the 
authority  of  certain  theologians.  Now,  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy aims  to  limit  itself  strictly  to  the  theology  of  the 
Bible  itself.  Biblical  theologians  are  fallible  men,  and 
doubtless  it  is  true,  that  they  err  in  their  interpretation 
of  the  Scriptures,  as  have  others ;  but  it  is  the  aim  of 
the  discipline  to  give  the  theology  of  the  Bible  pure 
and  simple  ;  and  the  inductive  and  historical  methods 
that  determine  the  working  of  the  department  are 
certainly  favorable  to  an  objective  presentation  of  the 


Q  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

subject,  and  are  unfavorable  to  the  intrusion  of  subject- 
ive fancies  and  circumstantial  considerations.  It  will 
be  my  aim,  so  long  as  I  remain  in  the  chair,  to  accom- 
plish this  ideal  as  far  as  possible.  Without  fear  or 
favor  I  shall  teach  the  truth  of  God's  Word  as  I  find  it. 
The  theology  of  the  Bible  is  much  simpler,  richer,  and 
grander  than  any  of  the  creeds  or  dogmatic  systems. 
These  have  been  built  upon  select  portions  of  the  Bible, 
and  there  is  a  capriciousness  of  selection  in  them  all. 
But  Biblical  Theology  makes  no  selection  of  texts — it 
uses  the  entire  Bible  in  all  its  passages,  and  in  every 
single  passage,  giving  each  its  place  and  importance  in 
the  unfolding  of  divine  revelation.  To  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy the  Bible  is  a  mine  of  untold  wealth ;  treasures, 
new  and  old,  are  in  its  storehouses ;  all  its  avenues 
lead,  in  one  way  or  another,  to  tj$e  presence  of  the 
living  God  and  the  divine  Saviour. 

The  work  of  Biblical  Theology  is  conducted  on  such 
a  comprehensive  study  of  the  Bible,  that  while  the  Pro- 
fessor builds  upon  a  thorough  study  of  the  original 
texts,  his  class  must  use  their  English  Bibles.  A 
thorough  study  of  the  English  Bible  is  necessarily  in- 
cluded in  the  course.  If  the  plan  of  the  work  is  carried 
out,  the  student  will  accompany  his  Professor  through 
the  entire  English  Bible  during  his  Seminary  course, 
and  will  be  taught  to  expound  a  large  number  of  the 
most  important  passages  in  the  light  of  all  the  passages 
leading  up  to  them. 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  express  my  gratitude  to 
the  venerable  President  of  the  Board  of  Directors  for 
the  interest  he  has  ever  taken  in  my  work,  for  the 
honor  he  has  shown  me  in  nominating  me  for  the  Chair 
he  so  generously  founded,  and  for  attaching  to  the 
Chair,  with  such  modesty  and  consideration,  the  name 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  7 

of  Edward  Robinson,  my  honored  teacher,  the  greatest 
name  on  the  roll  of  Biblical  scholars  of  America,  and 
the  most  widely  known  and  honored  of  her  professors. 
I  shall  regard  it  as  my  high  calling  and  privilege  to 
build  on  his  foundations,  and  to  advance  the  work  that 
he  carried  on  as  far  as  it  can  be  advanced  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  our  time.  The  names  of  Edward  Rob- 
inson and  Charles  Butler  will  be  entwined  into  a  bond 
of  double  strength  to  sustain  me  in  the  delicate  and 
difficult  work  that  I  now  undertake  to  do. 

Faithfully, 

C.  A.  BRIGGS. 

Arrangements  were  made  for  the  inauguration  of  Dr. 
Briggs  on  Tuesday  evening,  the  20th  of  January.  The 
Reverend  David  R.  Frazer,  D.D.,  was  appointed  to  de- 
liver the  charge  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Directors. 


II. 

THE   INAUGURATION. 

Tuesday  Evening,  Jan.  20,  1891. 

President  Charles  Butler,  LL.D.,  presided.  After 
devotional  exercises,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Butler,  the 
President  of  the  Faculty  made  a  brief  preliminary 
statement,  as  follows : 

"  As  has  been  announced,  last  May  the  President  of 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Charles  Butler,  LL.D.,  provided  for  the  endow- 
ment of  a  new  Chair  in  the  sum  of  $100,000. 

"  On  the  basis  of  this  munificent  gift,  at  the  recent 
meeting  of  the  Board,  the  new  Professorship  was  for- 
mally established,  to  be  known,  in  accordance  with  the 
request  of  President  Butler,  as  The  Edward  Robinson 
Professorship  of  Biblical  Theology.  This  was  designed 
by  Mr.  Butler  to  be  a  memorial  of  his  long-time  friend, 
the  late  Edward  Robinson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  the  first  Pro- 
fessor of  Sacred  Literature  in  this  institution,  who  hon- 
ored that  Chair  and  this  Seminary  by  his  long  and  dis- 
tinguished service  from  1837  to  1863. 

"  The  President  of  the  Board  suggested  that  it  would 
be  in  accord  with  his  own  wishes  and  with  those  of  his 
friend,  the  late  President  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  if  the  Board  should  transfer  the  Rev.  Professor 
Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  to  the  new  Chair  just  estab- 
lished. By  a  unanimous  vote  the  Board  at  once  adopt- 
ed the  suggestion  of  their  President,  and  transferred 

(9) 


10  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

Professor  Briggs  from  the  '  Davenport  Chair  of  Hebrew 
and  the  Cognate  Languages '  to  the  '  Edward  Robinson 
Chair  of  Biblical  Theology!  Dr.  Briggs,  having  signi- 
fied his  acceptance  of  this  transfer,  his  inauguration  will 
now  take  place." 

President  Butler  addressed  Professor  Briggs  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  On  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  constitution  of  the  '  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  the  city  of  New  York,'  I  call  upon  you  to 
'  make  and  subscribe '  the  '  declaration  '  required  of  each 
member  of  the  Faculty  of  this  institution." 

Thereupon  Professor  Briggs  made  the  '  declaration  ' 
as  follows : 

"  /  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments to  be  the  Word  of  God,  the  only  infallible  ride  of 
faith  and  practice  ;  and  I  do  now,  in  the  presence  of  God 
and  the  Directors  of  this  Seminary,  solemnly  and  sin- 
cerely receive  and  adopt  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith,  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  I  do  also,  in  like  manner,  approve  of 
the  Presbyterian  Forjti  of  Government ;  and  I  do  sol- 
emnly promise  that  I  will  not  teach  or  inculcate  anything 
which  shall  appear  to  me  to  be  subversive  of  the  said  sys- 
tem of  doctrines,  or  of  the  principles  of  said  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment, so  long  as  I  shall  continue  to  be  a  Professor  in 
the  Seminary" 

Thereupon,  President  Butler  said  : 

"  In  the  name  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  I  declare 
that  Professor  Charles  A.  Briggs,  D.D.,  is  inaugurated 
as  the  Incumbent  of  the  Edward  Robinson  Chair  of 
Biblical  Theology. 

"  On  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  the  Charge  to 
Professor  Briggs  will  now  be  delivered  by  the  member 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  Xi 

of  the  Board  duly  appointed  for  this  service, — the  Rev. 
David  R.  Frazer,  D.D.,  the  pastor  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Newark,  N.  J." 

the  charge. 

My  dear  Brother  Briggs: 

Before  attempting  to  discharge  the  duty  which,  by 
your  kind  consideration,  has  been  devolved  upon  me, 
permit  me  to  tender  my  heartfelt  congratulations : 
First,  upon  the  establishment  of  the  Edward  Robinson 
Chair  of  Biblical  Theology  ;  a  consummation  so  devout- 
ly wished  for  alike  by  yourself  and  by  our  revered 
Hitchcock.  We  all  share  in  your  joy  and  recognize 
the  new  departure  as  a  long  and  a  right  step  in  ad- 
vance in  the  history  of  our  Institution. 

In  the  orderings  of  God's  providence  every  age  has 
its  own  peculiar  problem  to  solve,  the  solution  being 
wrought  out  from  the  standpoint  of  its  own  pressing 
needs.  It  is  a  marked  characteristic  of  our  day  that 
the  Bible  is  now  studied  as  never  before  in  the  world's 
history,  and  the  establishment  of  this  new  department 
is  in  the  line  of  this  development  and  is  answerable  to 
this  modern  demand.  For,  if  I  understand  aright  the 
function  of  Biblical  Theology,  it  does  not  conduct  a 
simple,  grammatical  exercise ;  it  does  not  discuss  the 
various  textual  readings ;  it  does  not  study  the  opin- 
ions of  the  Fathers  or  the  deliverances  of  the  Church  ; 
it  does  not  formulate  a  body  of  systematic  divinity 
grouped  about  some  chosen  central  principle.  These 
are  important  and  legitimate  topics  of  study,  hence  are 
properly  cared  for  in  our  curriculum.  They  will  doubt- 
less be  very  helpful  as  external  aids  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  work  of  this  Chair,  but  the  peculiar  province  of 


\ 


12  EDWAKD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

Biblical  Theology  is  to  study  the  Word  ;  to  determine 
what  God  intends  to  say  in  His  Word,  and  then  to 
formulate  these  hallowed  teachings. 

Such  being  its  province,  I  need  not  pause  to  show 
that  Biblical  Theology  is  the  normal  response  to  that 
modern  critical  spirit  which  refuses  to  accept  anything 
upon  the  basis  of  authority  and  insists  upon  tracing 
everything  back  to  its  genetic  principle  and  its  efficient 
cause.  Neither  need  I  tarry  to  discriminate  sharply 
and  accurately  between  the  functions  of  Biblical  and 
Systematic  Theology.  If  you,  my  dear  brother,  have 
any  especial  interest  in,  or  desire  for  information  on  this 
general  subject,  I  would  respectfully  refer  you  to  a  work 
on  "  Biblical  Study,"  which  is  published  by  the  Scrib- 
ners,  and  was  written  by  one  who  has  served  long  and 
well  in,  and  has  just  been  transferred  from  "  the  Da- 
venport Professorship  of  Hebrew  and  the  Cognate  Lan- 
guages "  in  this  Institution  ;  and,  if  you  are  not  ac- 
quainted with  the  work,  I  can  assure  you  that  the  time 
spent  in  its  perusal  will  not  be  wasted,  for  you  will 
find  therein  an  admirable  and  exhaustive  discussion  of 
the  subject. 

But  I  want  to  congratulate  you,  secondly,  upon  the 
fact  that  you  are  to  be  the  incumbent  of  the  new  Chair, 
a  position  for  which  you  are  pre-eminently  qualified  by 
reason  of  the  peculiar  character  of  your  past  studies.  I 
am  very  well  aware,  that  you  would  much  prefer  to 
have  me  discuss  the  general  topic  of  Biblical  Theology, 
and  to  dwell  upon  the  claims  it  has  to  a  place  in  our 
curriculum,  rather  than  to  hint  the  name  of,  or  make 
any  reference  to  the  Professor  who  is  to  occupy  the 
new  Chair.  But  if  anything  of  a  personal  character 
should  be  said,  please  remember,  my  brother,  you  have 
no  one  to  blame  save  yourself,  since,  passing  by  abler 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  13 

men,  you  have  kindly  insisted  that  your  old  friend  and 
classmate  should  deliver  the  Charge,  as  you  enter  upon 
the  awful  responsibilities  of  your  new  position.  And 
as  the  class  spirit  asserts  itself,  I  will  say,  despite  your 
unspoken  protest,  that  the  class  of  '64  is  proud  of  its 
representative ;  that  it  rejoices  in  your  well-deserved  suc- 
cess, and  that  it  appropriates  to  itself  a  peculiar  glory 
by  virtue  of  the  events  of  this  hour.  Little  did  we  dream, 
when  we  sat  at  the  feet  of  that  honored  man  whose  name 
gives  dignity  to  your  new  Chair,  as  also  at  the  feet  of 
those  other  scholarly  and  godly  men,  Henry  B.  Smith, 
Thomas  H.  Skinner,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  and  Henry 
H.  Hadley,  men  whose  presence  was  a  benediction, 
whose  instruction  was  an  inspiration,  whose  memories 
are  revered  and  hallowed,  that  there  was  among  us, 
going  in  and  out  just  as  we  went  in  and  out,  one  who 
was  destined  to  sit  in  Gamaliel's  seat  and  to  honor  the 
exalted  position  by  his  scholarly  attainments.  Yet 
such  was  the  fact,  and  although  you  wish  I  would  not 
say  it,  still,  as  your  classmate  and  on  behalf  of  the 
class  thus  signally  honored,  I  tender  you  our  warmest 
and  heartiest  congratulations. 

And  I  propose  saying  still  further,  since  I  betray  no 
confidence  by  the  declaration,  that  it  would  have  greatly 
rejoiced  your  heart  and  would  have  wonderfully  inspir- 
ited you  for  your  work  could  you  have  heard  the  cor- 
dial, tender,  and  appreciative  words  with  which  our 
venerable  and  venerated  President  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  (who  is  also  the  kind  and  generous  patron, 
through  whose  munificence  the  new  Chair  has  been  en- 
dowed, "  Serus  in  coelum  redeas  "),  placed  your  name, 
the  only  name  placed  in  nomination  for  the  position. 

And  I  am  sure  you  would  have  been  more  than 
pleased  could  you  have  witnessed  the  unanimity  with 


14  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

which  the  Directors  ratified  the  nomination  and  trans- 
ferred you  from  the  Davenport  Chair  of  Hebrew,  to 
the  Edward  Robinson  Chair  of  Biblical  Theology.  I 
congratulate  you  that  the  honored  and  revered  Founder 
of  the  department  wanted  you  in  the  department  which 
he  founded,  and  also  upon  the  fact  that  you  enter 
upon  your  new  work  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  fullest 
confidence,  respect,  and  love  of  the  Directors  of  this 
Seminary. 

But  I  may  not  forget  that  this  is  your  hour.  Inas- 
much as  I  cannot  hope  to  impart  any  instruction  re- 
specting the  peculiar  and  practical  duties  of  your  new 
position,  I  would  be  content  to  let  these  congratulatory 
words  take  the  place  of  the  more  formal  charge.  In 
order,  however,  to  meet  the  requirements  of  my  ap- 
pointment, and  to  stir  up  your  pure  mind  by  way  of 
remembrance,  I  charge  you  : 

First.  To  have  clear,  well-settled,  and  accurately  de- 
fined views  of  the  nature,  the  scope,  and  the  design  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures. 

The  Bible  is  to  be  your  text-book,  and  the  Bible 
claims  to  be  the  book  of  God.  If  this  high  claim 
cannot  be  maintained  ;  if  the  Bible  be  not  the  book  of 
God,  as  verily  as  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  then 
is  it  unworthy  of  our  confidence.  That  Word  which 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God  and  was  God,  and  which 
in  the  fulness  of  time  began  to  be  flesh,  was,  as  the  In- 
carnate Word,  the  God-man,  very  God  and  very  Man. 
We  do  not  understand  this  "  great  mystery  of  godli- 
ness, God  manifest  in  the  flesh."  We  do  not  attempt 
to  explain  it,  but  we  accept  it,  we  believe  it,  we  rest 
our  hopes  of  life,  here  and  hereafter,  upon  it.  And 
upon  this  same  basis  we  can  accept  the  Word  written. 
It  also  is  an  incarnation.     Great   is   the  mystery  of 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  15 

Revelation,  God  manifesting  His  thought  in  the  forms 
of  human  speech.  Since  holy  men  of  old  spake  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Divine  and 
human  elements  are  co-ordinated  in  the  Word  written 
as  well  as  in  the  Word  Incarnated.  We  must  recognize 
the  Divine  and  human  factors  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
assign  a  legitimate  place  to  each  and  to  both,  but  I 
need  not  charge  you,  my  dear  brother,  to  bear  in  cease- 
less remembrance  the  fact,  that  just  in  the  proportion 
that  the  Divine  element  is  eliminated  or  is  abnormally 
subordinated  to  the  human,  is  the  authority  of  the 
Bible  circumscribed  and  the  power  of  the  Bible  abridged. 
You  will  never  forget  that  you  have  God's  Word  for 
your  text-book,  and  you  will  never  fail  to  teach  it  as 
the  very  Word  of  God. 

The  scope  of  Biblical  instruction  is  clearly  set  forth 
on  the  sacred  page.  Great  mischief  is  often  wrought 
by  the  notion  that  the  Bible  aims  to  cover  the  whole 
sphere  of  human  knowledge,  and  that  its  authority  is 
lessened  by  the  concession  that  there  are  some  things 
which  can  be  comprehended  without  its  aid.  We  surely 
do  not  need  the  Bible  to  teach  us  that  two  and  two  make 
four,  or  that  the  whole  is  greater  than  any  of  its  parts. 
The  Holy  Word  has  a  distinct  mission  and  a  definite 
aim.  It  does  not  come  to  us  as  a  teacher  of  physics  or 
of  metaphysics,  but  as  a  revelation  :  as  a  revelation  of 
God  :  as  a  revelation  of  God  to  man  :  as  a  revelation 
of  God  to  man  concerning  the  highest  and  the  dearest 
moral  interests  of  man,  alike  for  time  and  for  eternity. 
It  comes  to  man,  not  primarily  to  reason,  but  to  reveal, 
and  to  reveal  those  high  themes,  which,  by  necessity 
of  being,  transcend  the  ordinary  processes  of  human 
thought.  While  pervaded  with  an  air  of  simplicity 
and  honesty  and  truthfulness,  it  comes  not  primarily 


16  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

to  persuade,  but  to  command,  and  to  command,  not  in 
view  of  the  deductions  of  human  reason  or  in  the  light 
of  conclusions  reached  by  the  processes  of  a  specula- 
tive philosophy,  but  upon  that  simple,  yet  sublime, 
basis,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God." 

The  design  of  Revelation  is  summed  up  essentially 
in  the  Johannean  statement,  "  these  things  are  written 
that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God,  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through 
His  name."  As  all  roads  led  to  Rome,  so  all  Scripture 
leads  to  Christ.  The  poetry,  the  prophecy,  the  pre- 
cepts, the  biography,  the  history  of  the  Bible,  find  their 
true  centrality  in  Him  who  was  at  once  dust  and  Divin- 
ity, the  Workman  of  Nazareth,  the  Prophet  of  Galilee, 
'  The  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world.'  The  final  end  and  ultimate  design  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  are  "  to  make  wise  unto  salvation,  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ";  hence  it  is  your  busi- 
ness, my  dear  brother,  from  the  Word  written  to  educe 
the  Word  Incarnate,  and  I  beg  you  to  so  present  Jesus 
Christ  to  all  who  come  to  you  for  instruction,  that 
they  may  go  from  your  class-room  to  their  great  life- 
work,  not  only  impressed  with  an  abiding  sense  of  the 
matchless  beauty  and  the  mighty  power  of  that  Divine 
Saviour  concerning  whom  the  Scriptures  so  abundantly 
testify,  but  also,  and  as  the  normal  outcome  of  your 
teachings,  with  a  fixed  determination  "  to  know  noth- 
ing among  men  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 

But  Paul  forewarns  "  of  things  hard  to  be  under- 
stood," of  problems  which  must  perplex  the  most  acute 
mind  and  defy  the  grasp  of  the  most  profound  intel- 
lect. Furthermore,  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Word, 
conflicting  views  respecting  the  exact  significance  of 
the    revelation   will    arise.     Who    shall    decide   when 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  j_f 

learned  doctors  disagree?  To  whom  shall  the  ultimate 
appeal  be  taken  ?  Manifestly  to  the  Spirit  of  the  Liv- 
ing God  by  whom  the  declaration  was  prompted,  and 
to  whom  the  meaning  is  clear ;  hence,  I  charge  you, 

Secondly,  Seek  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  your 
arduous  and  responsible  work. 

I  attempt  no  solution  of  the  mooted  question  as  to 
whether  our  Lord's  promise  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
should  lead  believers  in  "  the  way  of  all  truth,"  was  re- 
stricted to  the  Apostolic  College  and  was  literally  ful- 
filled in  the  written  revelation,  or  whether  it  pertains 
to  believers  in  all  time. 

But  the  Scriptures  most  clearly  require  that  all  be- 
lievers should  "  live  in  the  Spirit,"  "walk  in  the  Spirit," 
"  be  filled  with  the  Spirit."  Christian  consciousness 
bears  witness  that  the  abiding  presence  of  the  Spirit 
begets  deep  and  vital  spirituality,  and  Christian  expe- 
rience abundantly  confirms  the  assertion  that  vital 
spirituality  ensures  a  large  insight  of  that  truth  which 
must  be  spiritually  discerned.  A  willingness  to  do 
God's  will  must  precede  the  knowledge  of  the  doctrine, 
and  this  willingness  of  mind  and  heart  must  be  begot- 
ten by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Put  peculiar  honor  upon  the 
Divine  Spirit  and  He  will  put  peculiar  honor  upon  you 
and  your  work.  He  will  open  your  eyes  to  behold  the 
wondrous  things  in  God's  law  ;  He  will  give  you  the 
witness  of  His  presence  in  your  own  soul,  and  will  en- 
able you,  in  all  meekness  and  humility,  yet  with  the 
highest  Christian  positiveness,  to  say  :  I  know  whom 
and  what  and  why  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded 
that  my  confidence  rests  not  upon  the  wisdom  of  man, 
but  upon  the  wisdom  of  God. 

And  as  you  thus  teach  the  Word  of  God  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  as  day  by  day  you  pre- 


18  EDWARD  ROBINSON   CHAIR 

sent  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  to  those  who  are  to 
preach  a  crucified  Redeemer  to  dying  men,  may  the 
Lord  bless  you  and  keep  you  ;  may  He  equip  you  for 
duty,  help  you  in  the  discharge  of  it,  and  when  your 
great  work  is  finished  may  His  "  Well  done  "  be  pro- 
nounced upon  His  "  good  and  faithful  servant." 

response  of  professor  briggs. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

I  thank  you  one  and  all  for  your  presence  here  to- 
night to  do  honor  to  the  venerable  President  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  this  Seminary,  who  has  been 
identified  with  this  institution  from  its  foundation,  and 
who  has  crowned  a  life  of  Christian  philanthropy  by 
the  endowment  of  a  Chair  of  Biblical  Theology  in  mem- 
ory of  the  greatest  Biblical  scholar  our  country  has 
produced. 

Our  Saviour  tells  us  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive,  and  we  know  that  your  heart,  honored 
Sir,  is  the  happiest  on  this  occasion.  You  have  en- 
shrined your  name  with  the  name  of  Edward  Robinson 
in  a  Professor's  Chair  which  in  all  time  to  come  will 
teach  the  theology  of  the  Bible,  and  train  thousands  of 
students  in  that  Word  of  God,  which  is  to  be  the  joy  of 
their  own  hearts  and  the  glad  tidings  of  redemption  to 
the  world.  You  have  so  fully  endowed  this  Chair  that 
you  alone  will  sustain  it  in  time  to  come,  and  have  the 
entire  credit  with  every  successive  professor  and  stu- 
dent for  that  financial  support  without  which  the  work 
of  grace  cannot  be  conducted  in  this  world.  Your  in- 
fluence will  go  with  these  heralds  of  salvation  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  as  each  in  his  turn  shall  tread  the 
highway  to  the  heavenly  city,  he  will  fill  your  heart 
with  joy  in  recounting  what  God  has  wrought  through 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  19 

him  and  through  you.  You  have  laid  up  a  treasure  in 
heaven  that  is  secured  to  you  through  all  the  ages  of 
eternity.  You  have  not  waited,  as  so  many  do,  for  the 
dying  hour  to  make  your  bequest.  You  make  it  in 
your  lifetime,  while  you  may  rejoice  in  its  accomplish- 
ment. 

I  thank  you  for  the  great  kindness  you  have  done 
me  in  naming  me  as  your  choice  for  the  Chair  of  your 
foundation.  No  one  could  have  done  me  more  honor. 
You  could  not  have  bestowed  upon  me  a  greater  bene- 
faction than  in  making  me  the  first  Professor  in  a  Chair 
whose  work  so  exactly  corresponds  with  my  ideals  of 
christian  service,  and  which  bears  the  name  of  a 
teacher  whose  memory  is  one  of  my  most  sacred  asso- 
ciations. 

Edward  Robinson  was  the  pupil  of  Moses  Stuart,  the 
father  of  Biblical  learning  in  America. 

He  carried  on  the  work  of  Biblical  scholarship  and  laid 
the  foundations  upon  which  all  recent  scholars  are 
building.  His  Lexicons  of  the  languages  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New  Testament  are  in  the  hands  of 
most  theological  students  and  ministers,  and  in  new  edi- 
tions, that  are  in  course  of  preparation,  will  be  the  help 
of  future  generations.  His  "  Harmony  of  the  Gospels," 
in  revised  editions,  still  holds  its  place  as  the  best  of 
Harmonies.  His  exploration  of  Palestine  made  him  the 
father  of  modern  Biblical  Geography.  His  mind  was 
sound  and  clear,  his  judgment  firm  and  solid,  his  per- 
ceptions keen  and  searching.  If  he  had  a  fault  it  was  in 
his  dislike  of  traditionalism.  He  was  a  man  of  truth 
and  deeds.  He  could  not  endure  shams  of  any  kind. 
He  was  an  explorer  and  a  builder.  He  rose  on  the 
heights  of  the  best  Biblical  learning,  and  he  taught  his 
students  to  go  forward.     He  appropriated  the  best  treas- 


20  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR 

ures  of  German  learning,  and  held  his  ground  against 
every  suspicion  of  rationalism.  As  a  professor  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary  he  was  a  great  teacher.  As  the 
Secretary  of  its  Faculty  for  many  years  he  was  a  great 
disciplinarian.  He  was  the  first  librarian,  to  whom  we 
owe  the  organization  of  our  great  library.  It  has  been 
my  honor  to  be  one  of  his  successors  as  Librarian,  as 
Secretary  and  in  the  Hebrew  Chair,  and  everywhere  I 
have  been  under  the  spell  of  his  influence.  Edward 
Robinson  knew  and  appreciated  the  discipline  of  Bib- 
lical Theology,  which  in  his  day  was  getting  a  foothold 
in  the  German  universities — but  he  was  obliged,  by  the 
poverty  of  Union  Seminary,  to  do  all  the  work  of  the 
Biblical  department,  with  a  single  tutor.  Like  a  wise 
master,  he  gave  his  strength  to  the  foundations.  Owing 
to  the  benefaction  of  James  Brown,  the  Biblical  depart- 
ment was  organized  in  two  chairs;  but  long  after  Rob- 
inson's death.  Then  to  this  was  added  a  temporary 
Professor  in  the  department  of  Biblical  Philology. 
Now  the  chair  of  Biblical  Theology  has  been  estab- 
lished, and  the  Biblical  department  of  Union  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  rises  to  the  height  of  Edward  Robinson's 
ideal.  Can  we  doubt — to  use  your  own  words,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent— that  his  benediction  is  upon  us  on  this  occasion  ? 

It  was  my  privilege,  as  a  student  of  Union  Seminary, 
to  have  as  teachers  the  best  Faculty  in  the  world  : 
Thomas  H.  Skinner,  Edward  Robinson,  Henry  B. 
Smith,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  and  Henry  Hadley.  I 
think  that  I  know  these  men  and  that  their  hearts  are 
with  us,  their  successors. 

It  is  proper  that  I  should  briefly  allude  to  our  late 
President,  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  my  teacher  and  then 
my  friend.  He  knew  the  value  of  Biblical  Theology. 
In  his  lectures  on  Biblical  History  he  introduced  it  into 


OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  21 

his  course  so  far  as  possible  as  one  of  its  sections,  but 
he  saw  that  the  field  was  too  vast,  and  longed  for  the 
time  when  this  Chair  should  be  endowed.  Dr.  Hitch- 
cock was  one  of  the  prophets  of  his  time.  He  had 
marvellous  foresight  and  insight.  He  saw  that  the  revi- 
sion movement  was  coming,  and  that  a  transformation 
of  theology  was  necessary.  He  prepared  his  students 
for  the  day  and  the  work.  He  has  left  us  little  in  book 
form,  but  his  volume  of  Sermons  is  worth  a  hundred 
books  of  other  men,  and  his  influence  and  name  will 
endure  as  long  as  the  sun  and  the  moon,  to  all  genera- 
tions. 

It  is  a  happy  feature  of  this  occasion  that  my  dear 
brother  Frazer,  whom  I  learned  to  value  and  to  love,  in 
the  class  rooms  of  the  Seminary,  represents  the  Board 
of  Directors  in  giving  me  their  Charge.  I  could  be  sure 
of  his  confidence  as  entwined  in  the  memory  of  youth- 
ful study  and  affection.  I  thank  him  for  the  expression 
of  it  again  to-night.  To  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Board 
of  Directors,  I  wish  to  express  my  heartfelt  thanks. 
Your  unanimous  choice  of  me  to  this  position  in  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case  is  a  renewed  token  of  those 
pleasant  relations  that  have  never  been  disturbed  since 
first  you  welcomed  me,  a  young  and  inexperienced 
teacher,  into  the  ranks  of  the  faculty.  I  can  only  say 
that,  so  far  as  I  know  myself,  I  am  loyal  to  you,  to  the 
faculty,  to  my  teachers,  and  to  the  founders  and  the 
benefactors  of  this  institution. 

In  advancing  into  the  fields  of  Biblical  Theology  it  is 
a  great  comfort  to  me  that  you  have  chosen  as  my  suc- 
cessor in  the  Hebrew  Chair  one,  a  pupil,  who  knows 
my  work,  and  will  carry  it  on — a  friend,  who  has  been 
for  many  years  as  my  right  arm,  who  will  do  the  work 
better  than  I  have  done  it,  and  who  has  the  courage 


22  EDWARD  ROBINSON  CHAIR. 

to  go  forward  and  build  higher.  The  only  difficulty 
I  had  in  the  way  of  accepting  the  chair,  was  lest  too 
much  work  would  be  imposed  upon  him  by  the  as- 
sumption of  new  work  in  addition  to  the  old.  I  can- 
not refrain  from  expressing  my  thanks  to  my  dear 
friend,  David  H.  McAlpin,  that  he  has  removed  this 
difficulty  out  of  our  way,  and  in  addition  to  numerous 
acts  of  kindness,  which  seem  as  natural  to  him  as  life 
and  breath,  he  has  furnished  the  means  to  sustain  a 
tutorial  assistant  to  Dr.  Brown  for  two  years  in  the 
hope  that  ere  that  time  shall  elapse  some  kind  friend 
may  be  glad  to  add  another  name  to  the  benefactors  of 
this  institution,  and  follow  the  example  set  by  our  hon- 
ored President. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  say  that  Union 
Theological  Seminary  is  not  a  wealthy  institution.  We 
need  at  least  half  a  million  dollars  to  make  us  comfort- 
able. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  gentlemen  of  our  Board  of 
Directors  to  do  all  that  the  Seminary  requires.  They 
are  one  and  all  doing  nobly.  Some  of  them  are  strain- 
ing their  resources  to  sustain  this  institution  and  ex- 
alt it. 

God  has  blessed  us  in  the  past ;  we  are  rejoicing  in 
His  blessing  to-night.  I  doubt  not  there  are  in  this 
audience  and  in  this  city  numerous  friends,  who  will 
bless  us  and  bless  themselves  in  the  eternities  with  the 
ample  supply  that  they  will  furnish  for  all  the  needs  of 
this  institution,  that  it  may  be  a  centre  of  evangelism 
for  this  metropolis,  for  the  nation,  and  for  the  world. 


III. 

THE   INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

The  Authority  of  Holy  Scripture. 

The  theme  for  my  discourse  to-night  has  sprung  out 
of  the  necessities  of  the  situation.  It  seems  to  be  my 
duty  to  set  forth  my  views  fully  and  frankly  with  refer- 
ence to  those  fundamental  questions  of  our  times  that 
underlie  the  discipline  of  Biblical  Theology.  Accord- 
ingly, I  have  chosen  that  upon  which  everything  de- 
pends— the  Authority  of  Holy  Scripture. 

Human  nature  is  so  constituted  that,  when  self-con- 
sciousness and  reflection  rise  into  activity,  there  is  an 
irresistible  impulse  to  seek  authority  for  the  relations 
in  which  we  find  ourselves,  the  knowledge  that  is  taught 
us  and  the  conduct  prescribed  for  us  in  life.  We  may 
be  content  as  children  with  the  authority  of  our  par- 
ents, as  young  men  and  maidens  with  the  authority  of 
masters  and  teachers,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  responsi- 
bility is  thrown  upon  ourselves,  and  we  alone  must  bear 
the  strain  of  life,  incur  its  obligations,  and  earn  its 
rewards  and  penalties  for  time  and  for  eternity.  What 
authority  shall  be  our  guide  and  comfort  in  life  is  a 
fundamental  question  for  man  at  all  times,  but  never 
has  it  been  so  urged  upon  our  race  as  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

If  we  undertake  to  search  the  forms  of  authority  that 
exist  about  us,  they  all  alike  disclose  themselves  as  human 
and  imperfect,  and  we  feel  at  times  as  if  we  were  upon 

(23) 


24  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

an  unknown  sea,  with  pilots  and  officers  in  whom  we 
have  no  confidence.  The  earnest  spirit  presses  back 
of  all  these  human  authorities  in  quest  of  an  infallible 
guide  and  of  an  eternal  and  immutable  certainty.  Prob- 
ability might  be  the  guide  of  life  in  the  superficial 
eighteenth  century,  and  for  those  who  have  inherited 
its  traditions,  but  the  men  of  the  present  times  are  in 
quest  of  certainty.  Divine  authority  is  the  only  author- 
ity to  which  man  can  yield  implicit  obedience,  on 
which  he  can  rest  in  loving  certainty  and  build  with 
joyous  confidence. 

The  progress  of  criticism  in  our  day  has  so  under- 
mined and  destroyed  the  pillars  of  authority  upon 
which  former  generations  were  wont  to  rest  that  agnos- 
ticism seems  to  many  minds  the  inevitable  result  of 
scientific  investigation.  We  cannot  know  God,  we  can- 
not be  certain  with  regard  to  ultimate  realities.  Man 
cannot  rise  to  the  throne  of  the  Deity.  He  cannot  see 
the  Invisible  or  know  the  transcendent.  Unless  God 
in  some  way  enter  within  the  region  of  human  knowl- 
edge, we  cannot  know  Him.  But  if  God  be  God,  if  He 
be  the  Creator  and  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  if  He  has 
made  it  and  governs  it  with  a  holy  purpose,  He  may 
not  only  transcend  universal  nature  by  reigning  over 
it,  but  He  may  enter  into  it,  inhabit  it,  and  pervade  it 
with  His  immanence.  He  may  disclose  His  presence 
in  forms  that  men  may  be  able  to  discern. 

I. — THE   SOURCES   OF  DIVINE   AUTHORITY. 

It  is  the  testimony  of  human  experience  in  all  ages( 
that  God  manifests  Himself  to  men  and  gives  certainty 
of  His  presence  and  authority.  There  are  historically 
three  great  fountains  of  divine  authority — the  Bible, 
the  Church,  and  the  Reason. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  25 

(i.)  The  Authority  of  the  Church. — The  majority  of 
Christians  from  the  apostolic  age  have  found  God 
through  the  Church.  Martyrs  and  saints,  fathers  and 
schoolmen,  the  profoundest  intellects,  the  saintliest 
lives,  have  had  this  experience.  Institutional  Chris- 
tianity has  been  to  them  the  presence-chamber  of  God. 
They  have  therein  and  thereby  entered  into  commun- 
ion with  all  saints.  It  is  difficult  for  many  Protestants 
to  regard  this  experience  as  any  other  than  pious  illu- 
sion and  delusion.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  a  modern 
like  Newman,  who  could  not  reach  certainty,  striving 
never  so  hard,  through  the  Bible  or  the  Reason,  but 
who  did  find  divine  authority  in  the  institutions  of  the 
Church  ?*  Shall  we  deny  it  because  it  may  be  beyond 
our  experience?  If  we  have  not  seen  God  in  institu- 
tional Christianity,  it  is  because  the  Church  and  its 
institutions  have  so  enveloped  themselves  to  us  with 
human  conceits  and  follies.  Divine  authority  has  been 
so  encased  in  the  authority  of  popes  and  councils,  prel- 
ates and  priests,  ecclesiastics  and  theologians,  that 
multitudes  have  been  unable  to  discern  it  ;  and  these 
mediators  of  redemption  have  so  obtruded  themselves 
in  the  way  of  devout  seekers  after  God  that  they  could 
not  find  God.  Plain,  common  people  have  not  been 
offended  so  much  by  this  state  of  things,  because  they 


*  "  From  the  time  that  I  became  a  Catholic,  of  course  I  have  no  further 
history  of  my  religious  opinions  to  narrate.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  my  mind  has  been  idle,  or  that  I  have  given  up  thinking  on  theological 
subjects ;  but  that  I  have  had  no  changes  to  record,  and  have  had  no  anxiety 
of  heart  whatever.  I  have  been  in  perfect  peace  and  contentment.  I  never 
have  had  one  doubt.  I  was  not  conscious  to  myself,  on  my  conversion,  of  any 
difference  of  thought  or  of  temper  from  what  I  had  before.  I  was  not  conscious 
of  firmer  faith  in  the  fundamental  truths  of  revelation  or  of  more  self-command  ; 
I  had  not  more  fervor  ;  but  it  was  like  coming  into  port  after  a  rough  sea  ;  and  yy' 
my  happiness  on  that  score  remains  to  this  day  without  interruption." — New- 
man's Apologia  Pro  Vita  Sua,  p.  264. 


26  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

are  accustomed  in  all  denominations  to  identify  the 
authority  of  God  with  the  authority  of  priest  and 
pastor,  as  a  child  identifies  the  authority  of  the  parent 
with  the  authority  of  God ;  and  men  of  deep  spiritual 
insight  may  be  able  to  force  their  way  through  these  v 
obstructions,  and  find  God  in  spite  of  them.  But  to  men 
of  the  temperament  and  environment  of  the  average 
educated  Protestant  such  an  experience  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible.  Nevertheless,  the  Church  is  a  seat  of 
divine  authority,  and  the  multitudes  of  pious  souls  in 
the  present  and  the  past  have  not  been  mistaken  in 
their  experience  when  they  have  found  God  in  the 
Church. 

(2.)  The  Authority  of  the  Reason. — Another  means 
used  by  God  to  make  Himself  known  is  the  forms  of  the 
Reason,  using  Reason  in  a  broad  sense  to  embrace  the 
metaphysical  categories,  the  conscience  and  the  religi- 
ous feeling.  Here,  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  of  human 
nature,  God  presents  Himself  to  those  who  seek  Him. 
The  vast  multitude  of  men  are  guided  by  God  through 
the  forms  of  the  Reason,  without  their  having  any  con- 
sciousness of  His  presence  or  guidance.  There  are  few 
who  are  able  to  rise  by  reflection  into  the  higher  con- 
sciousness of  God.  These  few  are  of  the  mystic  type 
of  religion  ;  the  men  who  have  been  the  prophets  of 
mankind,  the  founders  of  religions,  the  leaders  of  Re- 
vivals and  Reformations,  who,  conscious  of  the  divine 
presence  within  them,  and  certain  of  His  guidance,  lead 
on  confidently  in  the  paths  of  divine  Providence.  Such 
men  have  appeared  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  Some  of 
them  have  been  the  leaders  of  thought  in  modern  times 
in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  America.  We  ought 
not  to  be  surprised  that  they  should  depreciate  the 
Bible  and  the  Church  as  merely  external  modes  of  find- 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  27 

ing  God,  for  even  the  prophets  of  the  Bible  attach  little 
importance  to  the  institutions  of  Israel,  and  seldom 
mention  them,  except  to  warn  against  their  misuse.* 

It  may  be  that  these  modern  thinkers  have  a  divine 
calling  to  withdraw  men  from  mere  priestcraft,  cere- 
monialism, dead  orthodoxy  and  ecclesiasticism,  and 
concentrate  their  attention  on  the  essentials  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

Martineau  could  not  find  divine  authority  in  the 
Church  or  the  Bible,  but  he  did  find  God  enthroned  in 
his  own  soul.f  There  are  those  who  would  refuse  these 
Rationalists  a  place  in  the  company  of  the  faithful. 
But  they  forget  that  the  essential  thing  is  to  find  God 
and  divine  certainty,  and  if  these  men  have  found  God 
without  the  mediation  of  Church  and  Bible,  Church 
and  Bible  are  means  and  not  ends ;  they  are  avenues  to 
God,  but  are  not  God.  We  regret  that  these  Rational- 
ists depreciate  the  means  of  grace  so  essential  to  most 
of  us,  but  we  are  warned  lest  we  commit  a  similar 
error,  and  depreciate  the  Reason  and  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. 


s/ 


*  i  Sam.  xv.  22-23;  Is-  i.  IO_I7;  Jer.  vii.  22-26;  Mic.  vi.  6-8. 

t  "  Divine  guidance  has  never  and  nowhere  failed  to  men  ;  nor  has  it  ever, 
in  the  most  essential  things,  largely  differed  amongst  them ;  but  it  has  not 
always  been  recognized  as  divine,  much  less  as  the  living  contact  of  Spirit  with 
spirit — the  communion  of  affection  between  God  and  man.  While  conscience 
remained  an  impersonal  law,  stern  and  silent,  with  only  a  jealous  Nemesis  be- 
hind, man  had  to  stand  up  alone,  and  work  out  for  himself  his  independent 
magnanimity ;  and  he  could  only  be  the  pagan  hero.  When  conscience  was 
found  to  be  inseparably  blended  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  speak  in  tones 
immediately  divine,  it  became  the  very  shrine  of  worship — its  strife,  its  repent- 
ance, its  aspirations,  passed  into  the  incidents  of  a  living  drama,  with  its  crises 
of  alienation  and  reconcilement ;  and  the  cold  obedience  to  a  mysterious  neces- 
sity was  exchanged  for  the  allegiance  of  personal  affection.  And  this  is  the 
true  emergence  from  the  darkness  of  ethical  law  to  the  tender  light  of  the  life 
divine.  The  veil  falls  from  the  shadowed  face  of  moral  authority,  and  the 
directing  love  of  the  all-holy  God  shines  forth."  —  Martineau's  Seat  of 
Authority  in  Religion,  p.  75. 


V 


28  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

(3.)  The  Authority  of  Holy  Scripture. — We  have  ex- 
amined the  Church  and  the  Reason  as  seats  of  divine 
authority  in  an  introduction  to  our  theme,  the  Author- 
ity of  the  Scriptures,  because  they  open  our  eyes  to 
see  mistakes  that  are  common  to  the  three  depart- 
ments. Protestant  Christianity  builds  its  faith  and  life 
on  the  divine  authority  contained  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  too  often  depreciates  the  Church  and  the  Reason. 
Spurgeon  is  an  example  of  the  average  modern  Evan- 
gelical, who  holds  the  Protestant  position,  and  assails 
the  Church  and  Reason  in  the  interest  of  the  authority 
of  Scripture.  But  the  average  opinion  of  the  Christian 
world  would  not  assign  him  a  higher  place  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  than  Martineau  or  Newman.  May  we 
not  conclude,  on  the  whole,  that  these  three  represent- 
ative Christians  of  our  time,  living  in  or  near  the 
world's  metropolis,  have,  each  in  his  way,  found  God 
and  rested  on  divine  authority  ?  May  we  not  learn  from 
them  not  to  depreciate  any  of  the  means  whereby  God 
makes  Himself  known  to  men  ?  Men  are  influenced  by 
their  temperaments  and  environments  which  of  the 
three  ways  of  access  to  God  they  may  pursue.  There 
are  obstructions  thrown  up  by  the  folly  of  men  in  each 
one  of  these  avenues,  and  it  is  our  duty  as  servants  of 
the  living  God,  to  remove  the  stumbling-block  out  of 
the  way  of  all  earnest  seekers  after  God,  in  the  avenues 
most  familiar  to  us. 

No  one  of  these  ways  has  been  so  obstructed  as  the  Y 
Holy  Bible.  The  ancient  Jews  made  a  fence  about  the 
law,  and  enclosed  it  with  circle  upon  circle  of  tra- 
ditional interpretation,  so  that  the  law  itself  was  hid- 
den out  of  sight,  the  external  circle  of  interpretation 
having  taken  its  place,  and  the  authority  of  God  was 
obscured  by  the  authority  of   man.      The   Christian 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  29 

Church  pursued  the  same  method,  and  concealed  the 
Word  of  God  behind  the  authority  of  popes  and  coun- 
cils, fathers  and  schoolmen.  The  Reformers  brought 
the  Bible  from  its  obscurity  for  a  season,  but  their  suc- 
cessors, the  scholastics  and  ecclesiastics  of  Protestant- 
ism, pursued  the  old  error  and  enveloped  the  Bible  with 
creeds  and  ecclesiastical  decisions,  and  dogmatic  sys- 
tems, and  substituted  for  the  authority  of  God  the 
authority  of  a  Protestant  rule  of  faith.  The  Bible  has 
been  treated  as  if  it  were  a  baby,  to  be  wrapped  in 
swaddling-clothes,  nursed,  and  carefully  guarded,  lest  it 
should  be  injured  by  heretics  and  skeptics.  It  has 
been  shut  up  in  a  fortress,  and  surrounded  by  breast- 
works and  fortifications  as  extensive  as  those  that 
envelope  Cologne  and  Strasburg.  No  one  can  get  at 
the  Bible  unless  he  force  his  way  through  these  breast- 
works of  traditional  dogmatism,  and  storm  the  barriers 
of  ecclesiasticism. 

II. — THE  BARRIERS  OF  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  IN  HOLY 
SCRIPTURE. 

The  Bible  is  the  book  of  God,  the  greatest  treasure 
of  the  Church.  Its  ministry  are  messengers  to  preach 
the  Word  of  God,  and  to  invite  men  to  His  presence 
and  government.  It  is  pharisaic  to  obstruct  their  way 
by  any  fences  or  stumbling-blocks  whatever.  It  is  a 
sin  against  the  divine  majesty  to  prop  up  divine  author- 
ity by  human  authority,  however  great  or  extensive. 
The  sun  is  shining  in  noontide  splendor.  Lest  men, 
by  looking  at  it,  should  quench  the  light  of  the  great 
luminary,  let  us  build  walls  so  high  that  they  cannot 
see  the  sun,  and  let  us  guard  its  light  by  reflecting  mir- 
rors. The  grace  of  God  is  the  true  elixir  of  life  to  all 
mankind.     Lest  indiscriminate  use  of  it  should  vitiate 


30  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

its  powers,  let  us  dilute  it  in  several  degrees,  so  that  it 
may  not  come  to  men  directly,  but  only  through  a  suc- 
cession of  safe  hands.  How  absurd,  you  say.  And 
yet  this  is  the  way  men  have  been  dealing  with  the 
Bible,  shutting  out  the  light  of  God,  obstructing  the 
life  of  God,  and  fencing  in  the  authority  of  God. 

(i.)  Superstition. — The  first  barrier  that  obstructs  the 
way  to  the  Bible  is  superstition.  V/e  are  accustomed  to 
attach  superstition  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Mariolatry, 
Hagiolatry,  and  the  use  of  images  and  pictures  and 
other  external  things  in  worship.  But  superstition  is 
no  less  superstition  if  it  take  the  form  of  Bibliolatry. 
It  may  be  all  the  worse  if  it  concentrate  itself  on  this 
one  thing.  But  the  Bible  has  no  magical  virtue  in  it, 
and  there  is  no  halo  enclosing  it.  It  will  not  stop  a 
bullet  any  better  than  a  mass-book.  It  will  not  keep 
off  evil  spirits  any  better  than  a  cross.  It  will  not  guard 
a  home  from  fire  half  so  well  as  holy  water.  If  you  de-  </ 
sire  to  know  when  and  how  you  should  take  a  journey, 
you  will  find  a  safer  guide  in  an  almanac  or  a  daily 
newspaper.  The  Bible  is  no  better  than  hydromancy 
or  witchcraft,  if  we  seek  for  divine  guidance  by  the 
chance  opening  of  the  Book.*  The  Bible,  as  a  book,  is 
paper,  print,  and  binding, — nothing  more.     It  is  enti- 

*  I  am  far  from  any  disposition  to  treat  with  disrespect  the  religious  convic- 
tions of  pious  Roman  Catholics  or  Protestants.  Roman  Catholic  divines  rec- 
ognize that  there  are  superstitious  uses  of  the  mass-book,  the  cross,  and  holy 
water  that  are  not  justified  by  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  and  usage.  My  argu- 
ment is  against  those  Protestants  who  exhibit  the  same  superstition  toward  the 
Bible  as  some  Roman  Catholics  show  in  the  ceremonies  of  their  religion.  Su- 
perstition is  just  as  bad  in  the  one  as  in  the  other.  The  only  difference  is  :n 
the  forms  of  its  manifestation.  In  my  experience,  those  who  make  the  loudest 
outcry  against  Roman  Catholic  superstition  are  the  very  ones  who  are  most 
guilty  of  the  superstition  I  am  condemning  in  Protestantism.  The  criticisms 
that  have  been  made  upon  this  address,  especially  in  religious  journals  noted 
for  their  hostility  to  Roman  Catholicism,  show  that  Bibliolatry  is  more  preva- 
lent in  Protestantism  than  I  had  supposed. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  32 

tied  to  reverent  handling  for  the  sake  of  its  holy  con- 
tents, because  it  contains  the  divine  word  of  redemp- 
tion for  man,  and  not  for  any  other  reason  whatever. 

(2.)  Verbal  Inspiration. — The  second  barrier,  keeping 
men  from  the  Bible,  is  the  dogma  of  verbal  inspiration. 
The  Bible  in  use  in  our  churches  and  homes  is  an  Eng- 
lish Bible.  Upon  the  English  Bible  our  religious  life  is 
founded.  But  the  English  Bible  is  a  translation  from' 
Hebrew,  Aramaic,  and  Greek  originals.  It  is  claimed 
for  these  originals  by  modern  dogmaticians  that  they 
are  verbally  inspired.  No  such  claim  is  found  in  the 
Bible  itself,  or  in  any  of  the  creeds  of  Christendom. 
And  yet  it  has  been  urged  by  the  common  opinion  of 
modern  evangelicalism  that  there  can  be  no  inspiration 
without  verbal  inspiration.*  But  a  study  of  the  origi- 
nal languages  of  the  Bible  finds  that  they  are  languages 
admirably  fitted  by  divine  Providence  for  their  pur- 
pose^ but  still,  languages  developing  in  the  same  way 
essentially  as  other  human  languages.  The  text  of  the 
Bible,  in  which  these  languages  have  been  handed  down, 
has  shared  the  fortunes  of  other  texts  of  other  literature. 

We  find  there  are  errors  of  transmission.  There  is 
nothing  divine  in  the  text, — in  its  letters,  words,  or 
clauses.;}:  There  are  those  who  hold  that  thought  and 
language  are  as  inseparable  as  body  and  soul.  But  lan- 
guage is  rather  the  dress  of  thought.  A  master  of 
many  languages  readily  clothes  the  same  thought  in 
half  a  dozen  different  languages.  The  same  thought 
in  the  Bible  itself  is  dressed  in  different  literary  styles, 
and  the  thought  of  the  one  is  as  authoritative  as  the 
other.     The  divine  authority  is  not  in  the  style  or  in 


^ 


*  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  64  seq.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 

+  Briggs'  Biblical  Study,  pp.  42  seq.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 

\  Biblical  Study,  pp.  156  seq. 


32  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

the  words,  but  in  the  concept,  and  so  the  divine  power 
of  the  Bible  may  be  transferred  into  any  human  lan- 
guage.* The  divine  authority  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures speaks  as  powerfully  in  English  as  in  Greek,  in 
Choctaw  as  in  Aramaic,  in  Chinese  as  in  Hebrew.  We 
force  our  way  through  the  language  and  the  letter,  the 
grammar  and  the  style,  to  the  inner  substance  of  the 
thought,  for  there,  if  at  all,  we  shall  find  God. 

(3.)  Authenticity. — The  third  barrier  is  the  authentic- 
ity of  the  Scriptures.  The  only  authenticity  we  are  con- 
cerned about  in  seeking  for  the  divine  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  is  divine  authenticity, \  and  yet  many  theolo- 
gians have  insisted  that  we  must  prove  that  the  Scrip- 
tures were  written  by  or  under  the  superintendence  of 
prophets  and  apostles.;}:  Refusing  to  build  on  the  au- 
thority of  the  living  Church,  they  have  sought  an  au- 
thority in  the  dead  Church ;  abandoning  the  authority 
of  institutional  Christianity,  they  have  sought  a  prop 
in  floating  traditions.  These  traditions  assign  authors 
to  all  the  books  of  the  Bible,  and  on  the  authority  of 
these  human  authors,  it  is  claimed  that  the  Bible  is  di- 
vine. These  theologians  seem  altogether  unconscious 
of  the  circle  of  reasoning  they  are  making.  They  prove 
the  authority  of  the  Bible  from  the  authority  of  its  au- 
thors. But  what  do  we  know  of  the  authors  apart  from 
the  Bible  itself?  Apart  from  the  sacred  writings, — 
Moses  and  David,  Paul  and  Peter,  would  be  no  more 
to  us  than  Confucius  or  Sakya  Muni.  They  were  lead- 
ers of  men,  but  how  do  we  know  that  they  were  called 
of  God  to  speak  divine  words  to  us?  The  only  way  in 
which  we  can  prove  their  authority  is  from  their  writ- 
ings, and  yet  we  are  asked  to  accept  the  authority  of 
the  writings  on  the  authority  of  these  authors.     When 

*  Whither,  p.  66.       +  Biblical  Study,  pp.  220  seq.      \  Whither,  pp.  81  seq. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  33 

such  fallacies  are  thrust  in  the  faces  of  men  seeking  di- 
vine authority  in  the  Bible,  is  it  strange  that  so  many- 
turn  away  in  disgust?  It  is  just  here  that  the  Higher 
Criticism  has  proved  such  a  terror  in  our  times.  Tradi- 
tionalists are  crying  out  that  it  is  destroying  the  Bible, 
because  it  is  exposing  their  fallacies  and  follies.  It  may 
be  regarded  as  the  certain  result  of  the  science  of  the 
Higher  Criticism  that  Moses  did  not  write  the  Penta- 
teuch or  Job  ;  Ezra  did  not  write  the  Chronicles,  Ezra, 
or  Nehemiah ;  Jeremiah  did  not  write  the  Kings  or 
Lamentations ;  David  did  not  write  the  Psalter,  but 
only  a  few  of  the  Psalms ;  Solomon  did  not  write  the 
Song  of  Songs  or  Ecclesiastes,  and  only  a  portion  of  the 
Proverbs ;  Isaiah  did  not  write  half  of  the  book  that 
bears  his  name.  The  great  mass  of  the  Old  Testament 
was  written  by  authors  whose  names  or  connection  with 
their  writings  are  lost  in  oblivion.*  If  this  is  destroy- 
ing the  Bible,  the  Bible  is  destroyed  already.  But  who 
tells  us  that  these  traditional  names  were  the  authors 
of  the  Bible?  The  Bible  itself?  The  creeds  of  the 
Church?  Any  reliable  historical  testimony?  None  of 
these!  Pure,  conjectural  tradition!  Nothing  more! 
We  are  not  prepared  to  build  our  faith  for  time  and 
eternity  upon  such  uncertainties  as  these.  We  desire 
to  know  whether  the  Bible  came  from  God,  and  it  is 
not  of  any  great  importance  that  we  should  know  the 
names  of  those  worthies  chosen  by  God  to  mediate  His 
revelation.  It  is  possible  that  there  is  a  providential 
purpose  in  the  withholding  of  these  names,  in  order 
that  men  might  have  no  excuse  for  building  on  human 
authority,  and  so  should  be  forced  to  resort  to  divine 
authority.  It  will  ere  long  become  clear  to  the  Chris- 
tian people  that  the  Higher  Criticism  has  rendered  an 

*  Biblical  Study,  pp.  222  seq. 


34:  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

inestimable  service  to  this  generation  and  to  the  gen- 
erations to  come.  What  has  been  destroyed  has  been 
the  fallacies  and  conceits  of  theologians ;  the  obstruc- 
tions that  have  barred  the  way  of  literary  men  from  the 
Bible.  Higher  Criticism  has  forced  its  way  into  the  Bi- 
ble itself  and  brought  us  face  to  face  with  the  holy  con- 
tents, so  that  we  may  see  and  know  whether  they  are  di- 
vine or  not.  Higher  Criticism  has  not  contravened  any 
decision  of  any  Christian  council,  or  any  creed  of  any 
Church,  or  any  statement  of  Scripture  itself.  It  has 
rather  brought  the  long-neglected  statement  of  the 
Westminster  Confession  into  prominence: 

"  The  authority  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  for  which  it 
ought  to  be  believed  and  obeyed,  dependeth  not  upon 
the  testimony  of  any  man  or  church,  but  wholly  upon 
God  (who  is  truth  itself),  the  author  thereof;  and 
therefore  it  is  to  be  received,  because  it  is  the  word  of 
God."  * 

Luther,  with  keen  spiritual  insight,  once  said : 

"  What  does  not  teach  Christ,  that  is  not  apostolic, 
even  if  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul  taught  it :  again,  what 
preaches  Christ  that  would  be  apostolic,  even  if  Judas, 
Annas,  Pilate,  and  Herod  did  it."f 

It  used  to  be  the  fashion  to  apologize  for  this  word 
of  Luther ;  but  here,  as  elsewhere,  Luther  was  truer  to 
the  Gospel  than  modern  theologians. 

(4.)  Inerrancy. — The  fourth  barrier  set  up  by  theolo- 
gians to  keep  men  away  from  the  Bible  is  the  dogma  of 
the  inerrancy  of  Scripture.  This  barrier  confronts  His- 
torical Criticism.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  task  to  point  out 
errors  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Nevertheless  Histori- 
cal Criticism  finds  them,  and  we  must  meet  the  issue 

*  Confess,  of  Faith,  I.  4. 

f  Kostlin,  Luther's  Theologie,  II.  256  ;  Walch.  xiv.,  p.  149. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  35 

whether  they  destroy  the  authority  of  the  Bible  or 
not.  It  has  been  taught  in  recent  years,  and  is  still 
taught  by  some  theologians,  that  one  proved  error  de- 
stroys the  authority  of  Scripture.*  I  shall  venture  to 
affirm  that,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  there  are  errors  in  the  Scrip- 
tures that  no  one  has  been  able  to  explain  away ;  and  the 
theory  that  they  were  not  in  the  original  text  is  sheer 
assumption,  upon  which  no  mind  can  rest  with  cer- 
tainty.f  If  such  errors  destroy  the  authority  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  already  destroyed  for  historians.  Men  cannot  shut 
their  eyes  to  truth  and  fact.  But  on  what  authority 
do  these  theologians  drive  men  from  the  Bible  by  this 
theory  of  inerrancy?  The  Bible  itself  nowhere  makes 
this  claim.  The  creeds  of  the  Church  nowhere  sanction 
it.  It  is  a  ghost  of  modern  evangelicalism  to  frighten 
children.  The  Bible  has  maintained  its  authority  with 
the  best  scholars  of  our  time,  who  with  open  minds 
have  been  willing  to  recognize  any  error  that  might  be 
pointed  out  by  Historical  Criticism  ;  J  for  these  errors 
are  all  in  the  circumstantials  and  not  in  the  essentials  ; 
they  are  in  the  human  setting,  not  in  the  precious  jewel 
itself ;  they  are  found  in  that  section  of  the  Bible  that 
theologians  commonly  account  for  from  the  providen- 
tial superintendence  of  the  mind  of  the  author,  as  distin- 
guished from  divine  revelation  itself.  It  may  be  that 
this  providential  superintendence  gives  infallible  guid- 
ance in  every  particular ;  and  it  may  be  that  it  differs 
but  little,  if  at  all,  from  the  providential  superintend- 
ence of  the  fathers  and  schoolmen  and  theologians  of 
the  Christian  Church.  It  is  not  important  for  our  pur- 
pose that  we  should  decide  this  question.     If  we  should 

*  Biblical  Study,  pp.  240  seq.  ;  Whither,  pp.  68  seq.  \  Whither,  p.  72. 

X  G.  P.  Fisher,  Nature  and  Method  of  Revelation,  p.  206  seq.  ;  Charles 
Gore,  in  Lux  Mundi,  pp.  354  seq.  ;    W.  Sanday,  Oracles  of  God,  pp.  15  seq. 


36  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

abandon  the  whole  field  of  providential  superintendence 
so  far  as  inspiration  and  divine  authority  are  concerned 
and  limit  divine  inspiration  and  authority  to  the  essen- 
tial contents  of  the  Bible,  to  its  religion,  faith,  and  mor- 
als, we  would  still  have  ample  room  to  seek  divine  au- 
thority where  alone  it  is  essential,  or  even  important,  in 
the  teaching  that  guides  our  devotions,  our  thinking,  and 
our  conduct.  Whether  divine  authority  extends  to  the 
circumstantials  of  this  divine  teaching  or  not,  it  is  un- 
wise and  it  is  unchristian  to  force  men  to  accept  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Bible  or  reject  it,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  its  inerrancy  in  the  circumstantials  and  the 
details  of  every  passage.* 

(5.)  Violation  of  the  Laws  of  Nature. — The  fifth  ob- 
struction to  the  Bible  has  been  thrown  up  in  front  of  mod- 
ern science.  It  is  the  claim  that  the  miracles  disturb,  or 
violate,  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  harmony  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  and  so  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  have  become  to 
men  of  science  sufficient  evidence  that  the  Bible  is  no 
more  than  other  sacred  books  of  other  religions,  f  But 
the  theories  of  miracles  that  have  been  taught  in  the 
Christian  Church  are  human  inventions  for  which  the 
Scriptures  and  the  Church  have  no  responsibility  what- 
ever. 

The  miracles  of  the  Bible  are  confined  to  the 
life  of  Christ  and  His  apostles  and  to  the  ministry  of 
Moses,  Elijah,  and  Elisha,  with  very  few  exceptions. 
The  Biblical  writers  do  not  lay  so  much  stress  upon 
them  as  modern  apologists.  Moses  and  Jesus  both 
warn  their  disciples  against  miracles  that  would  be 
wrought  in  the  interest  of  false  prophets  and  false  mes 
siahs4     The  tests  that  they  gave  to  discriminate  the 

*  Whither,  p.  73.  \  Whit  her,  pp.  279  seq. 

%  Deut.  xiii.  1-5  ;  Matth.  xxiv.  24-28  ;  2  Thess.  ii.  8-12. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  37 

true  from  the  false  were  not  their  marvellous  charac- 
ter, their  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,  their  suspen- 
sion of  the  uniformity  of  law,  or  the  comprehension  of 
extraordinary  laws  with  ordinary  laws  in  higher  laws 
— nothing  of  the  kind ;  but  the  simple  test  whether 
they  set  forth  the  holy  character  and  the  gracious 
teaching  of  God  and  His  Messiah.  The  miracles  of  the 
Bible  are  miracles  of  redemption.  They  exhibit  the 
love  of  God  and  the  compassion  of  the  Messiah  for  the 
needy,  the  suffering  and  the  lost.*  These  divine  fea- 
tures of  Biblical  miracles  have  been  obscured  by  the 
apologists,  who  have  unduly  emphasized  their  mate- 
rial forms.  The  miracles  of  the  Bible  were  the  work 
of  God  either  by  direct  divine  energy  or  mediately 
through  holy  men,  energized  to  perform  them  ;  but  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  claim  that  they  in  any  way 
violate  the  laws  of  nature  or  disturb  its  harmonies.  We 
ought  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the  efforts  of  scholars  to 
explain  them  under  the  forms  of  divine  law,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  order  of  nature.  If  it  were  possible  to 
resolve  all  the  miracles  of  the  Old  Testament  into  ex- 
traordinary acts  of  Divine  Providence,  using  the  forces 
and  forms  of  nature  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  na- 
ture ;  and  if  we  could  explain  all  the  miracles  of  Jesus, 
His  unique  authority  over  man  and  over  nature,  from 
His  use  of  mind  cure,  or  hypnotism,  or  any  other  occult 
power, — still  I  claim  that  nothing  essential  would  be  lost 
from  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  ;  they  would  still  remain 
the  most  wonderful  exhibition  of  loving  purpose  and 
redemptive  acts  of  God  and  of  the  tenderness  and  grace 
of  the  Messiah's  heart.  Christian  men  may  construct 
their  theories  about  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  with  en- 
tire freedom  so  long  as  they  do  not  deny  the  reality  of 

*  A.  B.  Bruce,  The  Miraculous  Element  in  the  Gospels,  pp.  25S  seq. 


38  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

the  events  themselves  as  recorded  in  Holy  Scripture. 
The  study  of  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  has  convinced  me 
that  they  may  be  explained  from  the  presence  of  God 
in  nature,  in  varied  forms  of  Theophany  and  Chris- 
tophany,  for  where  God  is  present  we  may  expect  mani- 
festations of  divine  authority  and  power.  As  my  friend, 
Dr.  Bruce,  recently  said  : 

"  Miracles  are  not  the  effects  of  partially  or  wholly  unknown 
physical  causes  ;  they  are  produced  by  immediate  divine  caus- 
ality. But  they  are  not  on  that  account  lawless  or  unnatural. 
They  are  wrought  for  a  worthy  end,  and  in  accordance  with  a 
wise  plan.  They  are  natural  in  the  sense  that  they  are  congru- 
ous to  the  nature  of  God,  falling  within  the  compass  of  His 
power  and  subject  to  the  direction  of  His  wise,  holy,  loving 
will.  They  are  natural  further,  I  may  add,  in  the  sense  that 
they  do  not  wantonly  interrupt  or  upset  the  order  of  nature, 
but  rather  put  it  to  higher  uses,  which  from  the  first  it  has 
been  fitted  and  destined  to  subserve." — Bruce 's  The  Miraculous 
Element  in  the  Gospels,  p.  66. 

(6.)  Minute  Prediction. — Another  barrier  to  the  Bible 
has  been  the  interpretation  put  upon  Predictive  Prophecy, 
making  it  a  sort  of  history  before  the  time,  and  looking 
anxiously  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  details  of  Biblical 
prediction.  Kuenen  has  shown  that  if  we  insist  upon 
the  fulfilment  of  the  details  of  the  predictive  prophecy 
of  the  Old  Testament,  many  of  these  predictions  have 
been  reversed  by  history ;  and  the  great  body  of  the 
Messianic  prediction  has  not  only  never  been  fulfilled, 
but  cannot  now  be  fulfilled,  for  the  reason  that  its  own 
time  has  passed  forever.* 

The  Book  of  Jonah  gives  valuable  suggestion  here. 
See  Jonah  going  to  Nineveh  with  a  prediction  that  in 
forty  days  Nineveh  will  be  destroyed,  and  then  going 


*  Briggs'  Messianic  Prophecy,  pp.  43  seq.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  39 

to  a  safe  place  outside  the  city,  waiting  with  impatience 
for  the  grand  sight,  the  destruction  of  the  metropolis 
of  the  world.  But  Nineveh  repents  and  God  recalls  His 
decree,  and  the  city  is  spared.  The  prophet  is  so  dis- 
tressed and  humiliated  at  the  failure  of  his  prediction 
that  he  longs  for  death.*  Doubtless  God  has  not  ful- 
filled His  prediction.  He  has  recalled  it.  The  messen- 
ger has  been  discredited  as  a  predictor,  but  he  has  been 
accredited  as  the  channel  of  the  redemption  from  God. 
It  may  be  that  Nineveh  will  presume  upon  the  weak- 
ness of  God,  His  fickleness  and  changeableness.  But  at 
all  events,  God  Himself  takes  the  risk.  This  is  not  the 
only  unfulfilled  prediction  in  the  Old  Testament.  God 
has  recalled  more  than  one  of  His  messages  of  woe.f 
He  postpones  the  dies  irce  until  men  count  Him  slack 
in  the  fulfilment  of  His  promises,  and  mock  and  jeer  at 
His  justice.:}: 

They  know  not  that  their  salvation  is  involved  in 
these  recalls  and  postponement.  God  is  not  willing 
that  any  should  perish.  He  rules  over  the  world  to  re- 
deem as  many  as  possible.  This  makes  it  difficult  for 
a  hard  and  fast  system  of  dogma.  It  troubles  the 
apologist  and  disarranges  his  lines  of  defence,  but  it 
presents  God  Himself  as  the  God  of  man,  the  very 
God  that  humanity  craves.  Jonah  represents  only  too 
well  the  general  attitude  of  Jew  and  Christian  alike  to 
the  heathen  world.  Embedded  in  Jonah,  unnoticed 
save  by  Zwingli  and  a  few  Anabaptists  and  heretics,  is 
the  gospel  of  infant  salvation  and  of  heathen  salvation. 

"  Should  not  I  have  pity  on  Nineveh,  that  great  city ; 
wherein  are  more  than  six-score  thousand  persons  that 

*  Jonah  iii.-iv. 

t  Is.  xxxviii.  ;  Briggs'  Messianic  Prophecy,  pp.  58  seq. 

X  2  Peter  iii.  3-9. 


40  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

cannot  discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their  left 
hand;  and  also  much  cattle?"* 

We  need  no  evidence  that  this  is  a  divine  utterance ; 
it  speaks  for  itself.  It  is  clearer  than  a  thousand  de- 
tailed predictions  and  their  fulfilment. 

We  have  passed  through  these  barriers  that  men 
have  thrown  up  in  front  of  the  Word  of  God,  the  breast- 
works against  Philosophy,  History,  and  Science.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  multitudes  of  the  best  men  of  our 
age  have  rejected  a  Bible  thus  guarded  and  defended, 
as  if  it  could  not  sustain  the  light  of  day.  Doubtless 
there  are  many  who  are  thinking  that  the  critics  are 
destroying  the  Bible.  They  have  so  identified  these 
outworks  with  the  Bible  itself  that  their  Bible  vanishes 
with  these  barriers.  I  feel  deeply  for  them.  But  we 
have  a  right  to  assume  that  if  these  apologists  are 
within  the  camp  of  God,  they  ought  to  have  such  con- 

*  Jonah  iv.  u.  I  recently  came  upon  a  passage  in  one  of  the  early  Baptists, 
using  this  verse  of  Jonah  in  a  way  that  was  unknown  to  orthodox  circles  : 

"And  our  Saviour  Christ  Luke  XVIII:  16.  in  commendation  of  the  condi- 
tion and  qualitie  of  Babes,  saith,  Suffer  the  Babes  to  come  unto  me  :  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdome  of  Heaven.  And  Matth.  XVIII:  3.  Except  ye  be  con- 
verted and  become  as  little  children  ye  shal  not  enter  into  the  kingdome  of 
heaven.  <&»  Ver.  4  whosoever  therefore  shal  humble  himself  as  this  little  child, 
the  same  is  the  greatest  in  the  Kingdome  of  heaven.  In  all  this  shewing,  that 
the  children  of  Christ's  Kingdome  must  be  off  such  humble  qualities  and  con- 
ditions as  infants,  &  1  hope  none  will  deny,  but  al  infants  are  off  one  quality 
&  condition,  even  the  infants  of  the  Turks,  our  Saviour  speakes  off  al  infants 
generally  :  &  evil  men  yet  judge  some  infants  condemned. 

"  And  of  such  infants  the  Lord  sheweth  his  great  compasion,  when  he  saith 
to  the  Prophet  Jonah— Jonah  IV:  11  ...  .  whereby  the  Lord  sheweth  that  they 
had  not  sinned,  neither  were  giltie  off  their  Fathers  sinnes.  And  wil  you  yet 
charge  the  Lord  to  condemne  so  manie  infants  and  al  for  Adams  sinne  ?  are 
not  your  waies  unequall  thus  to  say  and  teach  me  to  hold  &  think  off  God  ?  "— 
Tho.  Helwys.  A  Short  and  Flaine  Proof  by  the  Word,  and  workes  off  God 
that  Gods  decree  is  not  the  cause  ofanne  Mans  sinne  or  condemnation.  And 
that  all  men  are  redeemed  by  Christ.  As  also  that  no  Infants  are  condemned. 
161 1,  sine  loco. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  41 

fidence  in  divine  authority  that  nothing  from  without 
could  shake  them.  If  they  have  been  relying  on  the 
defenses  and  too  little  upon  the  Bible  itself,  it  is  high 
time  that  they  were  forced  back  to  the  Bible.  But  I 
feel  more  deeply  for  those  many  men,  honest  and  true, 
whom  they  have  been  keeping  away  from  the  Bible.*  I 
would  say  to  all  such  :  We  have  undermined  the  breast- 
works of  traditionalism  ;  let  us  blow  them  to  atoms.  We 
have  forced  our  way  through  the  obstructions ;  let  us 
remove  them  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  that  no  man 
hereafter  may  be  kept  from  the  Bible,  but  that  all  may 
freely  enter  in,  search  it  through  and  through,  and  find 
God  enthroned  in  its  very  centre. 

Here  in  the  citadel  of  the  Bible  two  hosts  confront 
the  most  sacred  things  of  our  religion — the  one,  the 
defenders  of  traditionalism,  trembling  for  the  ark  of 
God  ;  the  other,  the  critics,  a  victorious  army,  deter- 
mined to  capture  all  its  sacred  treasures  and  to  enjoy 
all  its  heavenly  glories. 

The  self-constituted  defenders  can  no  longer  retain  a 
monopoly  of  the  Word  of  God  and  exact  conditions  of 
all  who  would  use  it.  It  has  already  been  taken  from 
them  by  Biblical  criticism,  and  it  is  open  to  all  man- 
kind, without  conditions.  Is  it  not  their  heritage? 
Did  not  Jesus  and  His  apostles  offer  it  to  them  as  glad 
tidings  of  redemption  to  the  world?  Are  there  not 
treasures  of  grace  in  Holy  Scripture  amply  sufficient 
for  all  mankind  ?     It  is  the  teaching  of  God  that  men 

*  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce,  one  of  the  keenest  observers  of  the  religious  life  of  our 
times,  says  :  "I  certainly  believe  that  there  are  many  more  unpolished  dia- 
monds hidden  in  the  churchless  mass  of  humanity  than  the  respectable  church- 
going  part  of  the  community  has  any  idea  of.  I  am  even  disposed  to  think 
that  a  great  and  steadily  increasing  portion  of  the  moral  worth  of  society  lies 
outside  the  Church,  separated  from  it  not  by  godlessness,  but  rather  by  excep- 
tionally moral  earnestness.  Many,  in  fact,  have  left  the  Church  in  order  to  be 
Christians." — Kingdom  of  God,  p.  144. 


42  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

are  anxious  to  know ;  the  theology  of  the  Bible  itself 
is  what  they  are  craving.  The  teaching  of  men  and 
the  theology  of  creeds  and  theologians  no  longer  con- 
tent them.  These  all  have  their  place  and  importance, 
but  they  cannot  take  the  place  of  the  theology  of  the 
Bible  and  the  authority  of  God. 

III. — THE   THEOLOGY   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

We  are  now  face  to  face  with  Biblical  Theology.  Here, 
if  anywhere,  the  divine  authority  will  be  found.  It  is 
my  habit  to  divide  Biblical  Theology  into  three  sec- 
tions— Religion,  Doctrines  of  Faith,  and  Morals.  Let 
us  look  at  the  God  of  the  Bible  as  He  discloses  Him- 
self in  some  of  these  forms. 

A. — THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

(i.)  Theophanies. — The  most  prominent  feature  of  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  is  Theophany.  Theophanies  are 
the  bases  of  every  advance,  the  fountain  of  prophecy, 
the  source  of  miracle.  They  guide  the  heroic  leaders 
and  reformers  of  the  Old  Testament  religion.  A  per- 
manent Theophany  guides  Israel  from  Egypt  to  the 
Holy  Land,  and  takes  possession  of  the  Holy  Taber- 
nacle and  temple  as  its  permanent  abode.* 

Theophanies  cluster  about  the  Messiah  at  His  advent, 
until  these  give  place  to  the  Christophanies,  which  are 
the  great  feature  of  the  New  Testament  religion. 

It  is  conceded  that  these  Theophanies  have  features 
in  common  with  the  mythological  conceptions  of  the 
ancient  religions  of  the  world,  which  have  been  rejected 
as  mythical  by  historical  criticism.  But  so  soon  as  we 
compare  the  Theophanies  of  the  Bible  with  heathen 
mythology,  we  observe  striking  differences. 

*  Briggs'  Biblical  History,  pp.  16  seq.    Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDKESS.  43 

(a)  There  is  nothing  of  a  polytheistic  character  about 
the  Theophanies  of  the  Bible.  The  one  God  manifests 
Himself  to  chosen  men  and  a  chosen  people. 

(b)  The  Theophanies  of  the  Bible  are  not  confined  to 
ancient  times,  the  legendary  basis  of  the  history ;  they 
pervade  and  control  the  entire  history  of  the  Bible. 

(c)  The  mythological  conceptions  of  the  divine  pres- 
ence are  connected  with  gross  conceptions,  in  which 
the  gods  are  of  like  passion  with  ourselves ;  but  the 
Theophanies  of  the  Bible  are  pure  and  holy,  and  ever 
have  in  view  the  redemption  of  men.  God  assumes 
the  forms  of  light  or  fire,  or  of  angel  or  man,  in  order 
that  He  may  be  manifest  to  the  human  senses,  and  as- 
sure mankind  of  His  presence  and  favour.* 

(d)  When  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  transcendence 
was  unduly  emphasized,  the  Theophanies  remained  in 
obscurity  behind  the  miracle  and  the  prediction  which 
might  be  wrought  by  the  power  of  God  from  a  distance, 
outside  His  universe.  But  now  that  the  Immanence 
of  God  is  rising  into  prominence,  the  Theophany  casts 
the  miracle  and  the  prediction  into  its  shadow.  We 
now  know  that  God  is  not  only  over  all,  but  through 
all  and  in  all.  He  is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us.  If 
we  feel  after  Him,  we  may  find  Him.  We  cannot 
escape  from  His  presence.  If  God  is  really  present  in 
the  world,  pervading  it,  inhabiting  it,  was  it  not  a  part 
of  the  divine  instruction  that  men  should  be  taught 
by  visible  signs  to  see  it  and  know  it?  When  He 
appeared  to  the  ancients  in  human  form,  they  were 
assured  by  their  senses  of  His  ability  to  be  with  them 
in  every  hour  of  need,  and  they  were  prepared  for 
the  conception  of  the  great  prophet  of  the  exile : 
"  I   dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also 

*  Briggs'  Biblical  History,  p.  21. 


44  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

that  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit."  *  When  God 
guided  Israel  by  a  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  He  taught 
them  in  sensible  signs  the  sublime  truth  of  His  govern- 
ance of  mankind.  When  He  took  up  His  abode  in  the 
temple,  He  was  training  them  for  the  conception  of  the 
universal  religion,  that  He  inhabits  the  whole  earth. 
If  God  is  really  present  in  His  world,  and  has  an  inter- 
est in  the  bearers  of  redemption  to  a  chosen  people, 
the  kingdom  of  priests  for  mankind,  is  it  not  reason- 
able that  He  should  show  His  form  in  the  midst  of  the 
elements  of  nature,  and  His  countenance  in  the  faces  of 
intelligent  beings  ? 

The  Theophanies  of  the  Old  Testament  lead  on  to 
the  Christophanies  of  the  New  Testament — the  incar- 
nation, resurrection,  ascension,  and  advent  in  glory, 
whereby  the  Messiah  taught  mankind  the»great  lessons 
of  redemption.  And  the  Theophany  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  at  Pentecost  was  a  visible  and  audible  pledge  of 
His  permanent  residence  in  the  Church  during  the  era 
of  grace.  If  mankind  needed  additional  theophanies, 
doubtless  they  would  be  given  by  the  God  of  all  grace; 
but  those  recorded  in  the  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  the 
Apocalypse,  make  a  royal  highway  of  light  and  glory 
throughout  Biblical  history,  and  give  sufficient  assur- 
ance of  the  presence  of  the  Triune  God  with  the  people 
of  God  until  the  end  of  the  age,  and  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  destinies  of  the  world  and  man. 

(2.)  The  Institutions  of  the  Old  Testament. — The  insti- 
tutions of  the  Old  Testament  religion  are  of  a  most 
elaborate  character.  Whatever  theory  we  may  hold 
as  to  their  origin  and  development,  whether  given  by 
Moses  at  the  basis  of  the  history,  or  from  a  long  series 
of  prophets  and  priests  during  the  history,  they  present 

*  Is.  lvii.  6. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  45 

a  majestic  system.  About  the  throne-room  of  God, 
where  the  theophanic  presence  dwelt,  were  gathered 
sacred  places,  sacred  furniture,  sacred  times,  sacred 
orders  of  priesthood,  rites  of  sacrifice  and  purification, 
and  holy  rules  for  life  and  conduct.  These  doubtless 
belong  to  the  region  of  external  religion,  and  to  a 
lower  stage  in  the  religious  training  of  man.  The  Old 
Testament  prophets  knew  as  well  as  we  that  they  were 
mere  forms,  invalid  without  holy  contents  of  grace,  that< 
God  dwells  not  in  temples  made  by  hands,  the  heavens 
cannot  contain  Him  in  all  their  wondrous  heights  and 
breadths ;  *  obedience  was  ever  more  sacred  than 
sacrifice^  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  forests  were  God's  ; 
the  cattle  gathered  in  thousands  upon  the  hills,  how 
could  men  satisfy  Him  with  one  of  the  flock  or  herd?:}: 
Pure  hearts  were  vastly  more  important  than  clean 
hands.§  The  universal  priesthood  of  Israel  |  was  older 
and  more  important  than  the  Levitical  and  Aaronic 
orders. 

This  magnificent  religious  system  is  pure  and  holy 
throughout.  A  holy  God  can  be  worshipped  only  by  a 
holy  people,  and  in  ceremonies  of  holiness.  Hence, 
there  was  not,  and  could  not  be,  any  of  the  cruelty, 
licentiousness,  intemperance,  and  manifold  vices  that 
were  inseparably  entwined  in  the  institutions  of  the 
other  great  religions  of  the  world.  Divine  institutions 
are  forms  of  grace,  dignity,  and  beauty,  to  set  forth 
the  wonders  of  redemption.  They  point  forward,  as 
by  myriad  flames  of  light,  to  the  Messiah,  who  absorbs 
them  in  the  sunshine  of  His  presence.  They  then  pass 
away  as  the  shades  of  the  night,  when  first  they  see 
the  eyelids  of  the  dawn.^f     They  become,  for  all  ages 

*  1  Kings  viii.  27.  +  1  Sam.  xv.  22,  23.  %  Ps.  1.  8-14. 

§  Is.  i.  10-17  ;  Ps.  xxvi.  6.      |  Ex.  xix.  5-6.  Tf  Col.  ii.  17. 


46  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

and  all  men,  the  appropriate  symbols  of  the  universal 
religion.  They  evince  by  their  history  and  their  real- 
ization that  God  had  for  a  season  clothed  Himself  with 
these  forms  and  ceremonies  for  the  enlightenment  and 
guidance  of  mankind. 

B. — THE  FAITH  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

The  Faith  of  the  Bible  embraces  the  three  topics : 
God,  Man,  and  Redemption. 

(i.)  The  Doctrine  of  God. — The  God  of  the  Bible  is 
one  God,  not  merely  the  God  of  a  family,  a  tribe,  a 
land,  a  nation,  but  the  God  of  all  the  earth.  It  is  true, 
Israel  learned  this  only  by  degrees — but  nowhere  in 
the  Bible  do  we  find  any  recognition  of  other  gods  as 
having  a  place  in  a  pantheon.  God  is  sovereign  of 
angels,  seraphim  and  cherubim,  of  the  hosts  of  heaven, 
as  well  as  of  Israel  and  mankind.  The  God  of  the  Bible 
is  spirit — He  transcends  the  universe  that  He  created, 
governs  and  directs  to  its  appointed  end,  but  He  is  im- 
manent in  His  universe,  inhabiting  it  and  by  His  energy 
shaping  all  its  forces.  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  a.  per- 
son, bearing  proper  names,  the  most  significant  of  which, 
Jahveh,  indicates  His  personal  interest  in  and  guid- 
ance of  His  people,  a  person  who  may  be  approached 
in  prayer  and  praise,  and  who  recognizes  His  worship- 
pers, bestowing  upon  them  blessings  of  every  kind. 
The  God  of  the  Bible  is  a  living  God,  the  fountain 
of  every  life  and  activity,  living  in  all  life,  moving  in 
all  motion. 

The  Being  of  God  in  the  Bible  is  still  high  above  the 
best  attainments  of  philosophical  theism,  and  the  most 
skilful  constructions  of  the  systematic  theologian. 
When  we  turn  from  the  best  of  them  to  the  God  of 
the  Bible,  it  is  like  rising  from  earth  to  heaven.     A 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


47 


new  doctrine  of  God  is  one  of  the  greatest  needs  of 
our  time.*  The  Bible  gives  it  to  us  if  we  will  only  look 
at  it  and  embrace  it. 

How  was  it  possible  for  any  ancient  writer  to  have 
conceived  or  imagined  such  a  God,  unless  God  had 
presented  Himself  to  him  in  the  forms  of  the  Reason, 
and  he  had  seen  and  known  Him  as  the  only  living  and 
true  God  ? 

The  attributes  of  God  as  set  forth  in  the  evolutions 
of  Biblical  Theology  have  none  of  those  faults  that 
appear  more  or  less  in  the  best  systems  of  Theology,  f 
That  God  is  just,  righteous,  a  God  of  equity  and  judg- 
ment, is  as  clear  as  the  day.  The  great  sovereign  of  the 
earth  must  do  justice  ;  we  need  no  Bible  to  tell  us  that. 
But  the  favorite  attribute  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  is  the  attribute  of  mercy,  because  this  attri- 
bute man  needs  most  to  know,  and  it  is  not  so  evident 
in  the  light  of  nature.  The  mercy  of  God  is  the  theme 
upon  which  the  histories  and  the  prophets,  the  singers 
and  the  sages  alike  delight  to  dwell.  The  greatest  of 
the  theophanies  granted  to  Moses  was  in  order  to  reveal 
God  as  the  gracious,  compassionate,  the  long-suffering, 
abounding  in  mercy  and  faithfulness.^  The  love  of 
God  rises  to  its  heights  in  the  fatherly  love  of  Deu- 
teronomy,! and  the  earlier  Isaiah  ||  and  Jeremiah  ;^[  in 
the  marital  love  of  Hosea,**  Zephaniah,  and  the  second 
Isaiah+f — a  love  to  an  unfaithful  wife,  who  has  dis- 
graced her  husband  and  herself  by  many  adulteries ;  fy 
and  a  child  who  rewards  the  faithful  father  with  such 
persistent  disobedience,  that  he   must   be   beaten   to 


*  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  93  seq.  \  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  95  seq. 

\  Ex.  xxxiv.  6-7.  §  Deut.  iv.  37  ;  vii.  13  ;  x.  15  ;  xxxii.  6  seq. 

\  Is.  i.  2  seq.  If  chap,  xxx.-xxxi.  **  Chap,  i.-iii. 

tt  Is.  liv.  1-17  ;  Ixii.  \%  Hos.  i.-ii. 


48  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

death  and  raised  from  the  dead  in  order  to  be  saved.* 
The  love  of  God  as  taught  in  the  Old  Testament  is  hard 
for  the  Jew  or  the  Christian  to  understand.  It  trans- 
cends human  experience.  It  seems  so  impossible  even 
for  God,  that  men  must  be  explaining  it  away.  These 
wonderful  chapters  of  the  Old  Testament  are  neglected 
in  all  of  our  creeds  and  systems  of  divinity — because 
these  all  exaggerate  the  divine  justice  and  veracity, 
and  fear  lest  God  should  be  too  merciful.  Like  Jonah, 
they  have  not  been  able  to  conceive  how  it  is  possible 
for  God  to  redeem  the  great  cities  of  heathendom. 
They  have  not  seen  that  He  could  have  any  compas- 
sion on  the  Samaritans  and  the  Moabites,  who  do  not 
belong  to  the  Israel  of  God,  but  are  the  enemies  of  the 
historic  faith.f  They  have  seen  the  throne  of  God 
and  its  pillars  of  righteousness  and  justice,  and  have 
supposed  that  sovereignty  was  enthroned  there.  They 
have  not  seen  the  love  that  was  seated  on  the  throne, 
and  its  messengers  of  mercy  and  faithfulness  going 
forth  with  salvation  to  the  children  of  men.:}: 

The  love  of  God  as  taught  in  the  Old  Testament 
transcends  human  powers  of  conception.  None  could 
have  taught  such  love  who  had  not  seen  the  loving 
countenance  of  God,  and  experienced  the  pulsation  of 
that  love  in  their  own  hearts.  The  love  of  God  in  the 
Bible  is  an  invincible,  a  triumphant  authority  that  in- 
vokes the  loving  obedience  of  men. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  depreciate  the  love  of  God  in 
the  Old  Testament  in  order  to  exalt  the  love  of  the 
Messiah.  The  love  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
the  preparation  to  understand  the  love  of  God  in  the 

*  Jer.  xxxi.  18-20  ;  Hos.  xi.  8,  9  ;  xiii.  14. 

\  How  shall  we  revise  the  Westminster  Confession  0/  Faith  f    pp.  98  seq. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
%  Ps.  lxxxix.  14. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  4.9 

New  Testament,  who  so  loved  the  world,  as  to  give  His 
only  begotten  Son  for  its  salvation.*  O,  when  will 
men  learn  that  the  Bible  means  exactly  what  it  says ! 
It  may  destroy  our  logic  and  our  syllogism,  our  systems 
and  our  methods.  These  we  have  too  long  regarded  as 
authorities.  Logic  and  syllogism,  system  and  method, 
need  constant  criticism,  verification,  and  revision ;  for 
too  often  they  omit  the  essential  thing.  Their  induc- 
tions are  too  narrow,  their  comprehension  is  too  lim- 
ited ;  they  beg  their  premises  and  jump  to  their  con- 
clusions. The  love  of  God  to  the  world  is  more 
important  than  all  the  systems  devised  by  men.  It 
will  shine  forever  as  the  central  sun  of  the  universe, 
when  all  the  creeds  and  theologies  have  been  buried  in 
the  oblivion  of  the  eternities.  It  will  go  on  through 
the  centuries  of  the  world,  darting  its  rays  of  heavenly 
light,  its  beams  of  divine  fire,  and  its  regenerating  and 
transforming  movements,  until  the  world  knows  that 
God  loves  the  world,  and  the  world  adores  Him  with 
loving  worship. 

(2.)  Doctrine  of  Man. — The  doctrine  of  Man  in  the 
Bible  is  divine  doctrine.  A  twin  mirror  shows  man 
what  he  is  in  sin  and  misery,  and  what  he  is  to  be  in 
holiness  and  happiness. 

The  Word  of  God  is  a  revelation  of  the  sin  of  man. 
Sin  is  exposed  in  the  interests  of  redemption,  that  it 
may  be  brought  to  the  consciousness  of  every  reader  of 
the  Bible.  The  conscience  approves  the  voice  of  the 
Spirit  saying,  "  Thou  art  the  man/'f  when  our  sins 
disclose  themselves  in  the  picture  gallery  of  the  Bible, 
and  we  are  convicted  before  the  internal  tribunal  by  a 
divine  voice  speaking  with  an  authority  that  cannot  be 

*  John  iii.  16.  t  2  Sam.  xii.  7. 


50  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

questioned,  bringing  us  to  temporal  judgment,  that  we 
may  escape  the  ultimate  doom. 

The  Bible  presents  sinful  man  in  the  midst  of  an 
original  innocency  and  an  ultimate  perfection.  Sin  is 
only  a  temporary  condition.  Jew  and  Christian  alike 
exaggerate  the  original  innocency  and  depreciate  the 
ultimate  perfection.*  The  exaggeration  of  the  original 
innocency  is  in  the  interest  of  an  original  righteous- 
ness, which,  like  a  dress,  might  be  removed  as  a  punish- 
ment of  sin  and  then  put  on  again  by  grace. 

Protestant  theologians  have  exaggerated  the  original 
righteousness  in  order  to  magnify  the  guilt  of  our  first 
parents.  They  thus  come  in  conflict  with  ethical  and 
religious  philosophy.  The  Bible  is  not  responsible  for 
these  exaggerations.  The  original  man  was  innocent 
and  sinless,  but  not  possessed  of  that  righteous  and 
moral  excellence  that  comes  only  by  discipline  and 
heavenly  training.  The  temptation  was  a  necessary 
means  of  grace.  Man  did  not  make  his  religious  prog- 
ress in  the  straight  line  of  faith  and  obedience,  but  in 
the  curved  line  of  sin  and  redemption. 

But  the  most  important  thing  in  Biblical  Anthropol- 
ogy is  the  ideal  of  mankind.  Man  was  created  to  be 
the  lord  of  nature,  the  culmination  of  its  evolutions. 
Man  was  made  to  be  God-like ;  and  though  he  sought 
it  in  the  paths  of  disobedience,  he  is  sure  to  gain  it  on 
the  highway  of  redemption.  Man  was  one  in  origin, 
and  cannot  be  any  other  than  one  in  the  plan  of  God.f 
The  processes  of  redemption  ever  keep  the  race  in 
mind.  The  Bible  tells  us  of  a  race  origin,  a  race  sin,  a 
race  ideal,  a  race  redeemer,  and  a  race  redemption.^ 

*  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  107  seq. 
t  Briggs'  Messianic  Prophecy,  pp.  69  seq.,  476  seq. 

%  No  one  can  understand  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  who  does  not  con- 
ceive of  a  relation  of  the  Messiah  to  the  race.     My  revered  teacher,  Henry  B. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  51 

These  ideals  of  the  Bible  are  high  above  reality.  They 
are  so  grand  and  glorious  that  they  have  been  persist- 
ently misunderstood  and  perverted  by  men.  None  of 
us  rise  to  their  transcendent  glories. 

God  holds  these  twin  mirrors  before  us  to  drive  us 
from  sin  and  to  compel  us  to  holiness.  Divine  author- 
ity in  the  Bible  calls  to  every  one  of  us :  Forsake  sin 
and  live  a  perfect  life  ;  come  unto  Me  and  be  My  son, 
My  holy  one,  the  child  of  My  good  pleasure. 

(3.)  Redemption. — Redemption  is  born  of  the  love  of 
God ;  it  aims  at  the  transformation  of  the  sinful  and 
suffering  race  of  man  into  the  image  of  God.  It  com- 
prehends the  whole  nature  of  man,  his  whole  life,  and 
the  entire  race.  The  history  of  the  world  is  the  divine 
discipline  of  mankind. 

(a)  The  Old  Testament  doctrine  of  Redemption  is 
chiefly  concerned  in  the  material  interests  of  man.  In 
the  vast  majority  of  cases  it  has  to  do  with  salvation 
from  enemies,  from  afflictions  and  sorrows,  from  pov- 
erty and  from  death.  Our  Saviour's  ministry  was 
chiefly  to  the  poor  and  the  outcasts  in  Israel,  the  pub- 
licans and  the  harlots ;  and  the  redemption  that  He 
gave  them  was  not  merely  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but 
redemption  from  physical  sufferings.  The  Christianity 
of  Christ  is  to  heal  the  sick,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  give 

Smith,  says  :  "  The  destiny  of  man  in  Christ  is  to  come  to  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  his  fulness.  Christ  is  the  very  ideal  of  humanity  realized.  Even 
in  a  human  point  of  view,  He  is  the  consummate  flower  of  the  human  race,  a 
character  unique,  in  wisdom,  love,  and  holiness.  Not  only  in  the  individual 
life  and  individual  perfection  does  the  relation  subsist  between  man  and  Christ, 
but  it  also  holds  of  man  as  a  whole,  of  the  collective  race,  of  man  in  history. 
We  are  all  to  come  into  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 

God He  who  gives  the  law  to  history  is  the  law-giver  of  the  race. 

In  Him,  and  in  Him  alone,  the  secrets  of  humanity  are  hid,  its  enigmas  re- 
solved, its  salvation  insured.  He  who  redeems  the  race  must  be  the  Head  and 
Lord  of  the  race.  The  whole  human  family  finds  its  centre,  its  crown,  its 
peace,  in  Him." — System  of  Christian  Theology,  pp.  383-4. 


52  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

drink  to  the  thirsty,  to  comfort  all  that  mourn.  Such 
are  the  tests  that  the  Messiah  applies  in  His  royal 
judgment,  whether  His  servants  have  followed  His  ex- 
ample in  doing  just  these  things  in  their  ministry.* 

The  Redemption  taught  in  the  Bible  aims  to  remove 
all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.  There  can  be  no  Dark- 
est Africa  or  Darkest  London  which  the  light  of  Re- 
demption may  not  illuminate  with  heavenly  influences. 
Poverty,  vice,  and  crime  are  inconsistent  with  Chris- 
tianity. Christianity  has  undertaken  to  remove  them 
from  the  world.  The  Bible  gives  us  the  principles,  the 
examples,  and  the  divine  authority  for  their  extirpa- 
tion. Christianity  is  inconsistent  with  the  present 
social  condition  of  New  York,  and  the  other  great 
cities  of  the  world.  We  have  no  right  to  the  name 
of  Christians ;  we  bring  reproach  on  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  we  dishonor  the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  are 
stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  the  suffering  multitudes, 
obstructing  their  way  to  God,  and  their  entrance  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  if  we  do  not,  with  all  our 
souls,  strive  to  relieve  their  misery  and  want.  The 
Bible,  through  and  through,  insists  upon  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  bodies  of  men,  as  well  as  their  souls,  and 
of  the  whole  framework  of  human  society.  This  heav- 
enly teaching  is  so  against  the  prejudices  and  the 
attainments  of  mankind,  that  it  is  an  unmistakable 
evidence  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures  that 
so  strongly  urge  it  upon  us. 

{b)  The  Redemption  of  the  Bible  comprehends  the 
whole  process  of  grace.  Modern  Protestants  have  un- 
duly emphasized  the  beginning  of  redemption,  justi- 
fication by  faith  alone.f  The  slight  put  upon  Christian 
love  prevented   many  a   devout    soul,   like    Staupitz,. 

*  Matth.  xxv.  31-46.  t  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  142  seq. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  53 

from  joining  in  the  Reformation.  One  of  the  disciples 
of  Luther  taught  that  good  works  were  hurtful  to  sal- 
vation ;  and  a  practical,  if  not  a  theoretical,  Antinomi- 
anism  has  too  often  been  one  of  the  Adam's  apples  of 
Protestantism. 

James  has  a  word  for  the  men  of  this  generation — 
Faith  without  works  is  dead.  *  A  justification  that 
does  not  lead  on  to  sanctification  gives  no  credentials 
of  genuineness.  A  faith  that  does  not  result  in  a  life 
of  repentance  discredits  itself. 

The  movement  called  Methodism  laid  too  much 
stress  upon  the  experience  of  regeneration  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian's  life.f  But  a  regeneration 
that  does  not  exhibit  a  real,  earnest  Christian  life, 
fruitful  in  good  works,  is  not  a  regeneration  into  the 
kingdom  of  God,  whatever  else  it  may  be. 

The  Bible  rises  high  above  the  faults  of  modern 
theology,  and  comprehends  in  its  redemption  of  man 
his  justification,  sanctification,  and  glorification  ;  his  re- 
generation, his  renovation,  and  his  transformation  ;  his 
faith,  his  repentance,  and  his  holy  love.  No  one  who  is 
not  entirely  saved  can  sustain  the  judgment  of  the  day  of 
doom4  If  this  Biblical  doctrine  could  be  impressed  upon 
the  men  of  our  day,  the  authority  of  God  would  disclose 
itself  in  a  transformation  of  the  world,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  an  era  in  which  holiness  would  be  the  aim 
of  mankind. 

(c)  Another  fault  of  Protestant  theology  is  in  its  lim- 
itation of  the  process  of  redemption  to  this  world,§  and 
its  neglect  of  those  vast  periods  of  time  which  have 


*  James  ii.  26.  t  Briggs'  Whither,  pp.  118  seq. 

X  1  Thess.  iii.  13  ;  1  Cor.  i.  8  ;  Rom.  viii.  29-30  ;  Eph.  iv.  13-26. 
§  Briggs'  article,  Redemption  after  Death,  in  Mag.  of  Christian  Literature, 
Dec,  1889.     See  also  Whither,  pp.  206  seq. 


54  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

elapsed  for  most  men  in  the  Middle  State  between  death 
and  the  resurrection.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is 
firmer  here,  though  it  smears  the  Biblical  doctrine  with 
not  a  few  hurtful  errors.  The  reaction  against  this  limi- 
tation, as  seen  in  the  theory  of  second  probation,  is  not 
surprising.  I  do  not  find  this  doctrine  in  the  Bible,* 
but  I  do  find  in  the  Bible  the  doctrine  of  a  Middle 
State  of  conscious  higher  life  in  the  communion  with 
Christ  and  the  multitude  of  the  departed  of  all  ages;f 
and  of  the  necessity  of  entire  sanctification,  in  order 
that  the  work  of  redemption  may  be  completed.;}: 
There  is  no  authority  in  the  Scriptures,  or  in  the 
creeds  of  Christendom,  for  the  doctrine  of  immediate 
sanctification  at  death.  The  only  sanctification  known 
to  experience,  to  Christian  orthodoxy,  and  to  the 
Bible,  is  progressive  sanctification.§  Progressive  sanc- 
tification after  death,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Church ;  and  it  is  of  vast  importance  in  our  times 
that  we  should  understand  it,  and  live  in  accordance 
with  it.  The  bugbear  of  a  judgment  immediately  after 
death,  and  the  illusion  of  a  magical  transformation 
in  the  dying  hour  |  should  be  banished  from  the 
world.  They  are  conceits  derived  from  the  Ethnic 
religions,  and  without  basis  in  the  Bible  or  Christian 
experience  as  expressed  in  the  symbols  of  the  Church. 
The  former  makes  death  a  terror  to  the  best  of  men, 
the  latter  makes  human  life  and  experience  of  no 
effect  ;  and  both  cut  the  nerves  of  Christian  activity 
and  striving  after  sanctification.  Renouncing  them  as 
hurtful,  unchristian  errors,  we  look  with  hope  and  joy 
for  the  continuation  of  the  processes  of  grace,  and  the 


*  Whither,  pp.  217  seq.  t  2  Cor.  v.  1-9;  Heb.  xii.  22-24,  etc. 

X  Matth.  v.  48 ;  John  xvii.  17  ;  Rom.  viii.  29-30  ;  1  John  iii.  2. 
§  West.  Confession,  chap.  xiii.  fl  Whither,  p.  195. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  55 

wonders  of  redemption  in  the  company  of  the  blessed, 
to  which  the  faithful  are  all  hastening ;  and  through 
these  blessed  hopes  we  enter  into  the  communion  of 
all  saints,  and  have  a  happy  consciousness  of  the  one 
holy  catholic  Church,  whose  centre  and  majestic  frame 
are  chiefly  in  the  skies,  the  one  body  of  the  one  Christ. 
(d)  The  Biblical  redemption  is  a  redemption  of  our 
race  and  of  universal  nature.  The  Bible  teaches  that 
the  material  universe  shares  in  the  destiny  of  man,  and 
is  in  throes  of  birth  for  this  blessed  hope.*  As  the 
ancient  Jews  limited  redemption  to  Israel  and  over- 
looked the  nations,  so  the  Church  limited  redemption 
to  those  who  were  baptized,  and  excluded  the  heathen 
and  the  unbaptized  ;  and  Presbyterians  have  too  often 
limited  redemption  by  their  doctrine  of  Election.  The 
Bible  knows  no  such  limitations.  The  Bible  teaches 
election,  but  an  election  of  love.f  Loving  only  the 
elect  is  earthly,  human  teaching.  Electing  men  to  sal- 
vation by  the  touch  of  divine  love — that  is  heavenly 
doctrine.  The  one  drives  men  away  in  despair,  the 
other  unites  men  with  joy  to  the  love  of  God.J  The 
Bible  does  not  teach  universal  salvation,  but  it  does 
teach  the  salvation  of  the  world,  of  the  race  of  man, 
and  that  cannot  be  accomplished  by  the  selection  of  a 
limited  number  of  individuals  from  the  mass.  The 
holy  arm  that  worketh  salvation  does  not  contract  its 
hand  in  grasping  only  a  few ;  it  stretches  its  loving  fin- 
gers so  as  to  comprehend  as  many  as  possible — a  defi- 
nite number,  but  multitudes  that  no  one  can  number. 
The  salvation  of  the  world  can  only  mean  the  world 

*  Rom.  viii.  18-25.  t  Whither,  pp.  95  seq. 

%  "  Election  is  the  expression  of  God's  infinite  love  towards  the  human  race, 
redeeming  man  from  sin  through  Christ,  and  by  the  Holy  Spirit  bringing  him 
into  this  state  of  redemption,  so  far  as  it  is  consistent  with  the  interests  of  God's 
great  and  final  kingdom." — H.  B.  Smith,  System  of  Christian  Theology,  p.  505. 


56  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

as  a  whole,  compared  with  which  the  unredeemed  will 
be  so  few  and  insignificant,  and  evidently  beyond  the 
reach  of  redemption  by  their  own  act  of  rejecting  it  and 
hardening  themselves  against  it,  and  by  descending  into 
such  depths  of  demoniacal  depravity  in  the  Middle 
State,  that  they  will  vanish  from  the  sight  of  the  re- 
deemed as  altogether  and  irredeemably  evil,  and  never 
more  disturb  the  harmonies  of  the  saints. 

C. — BIBLICAL  ETHICS. 

We  are  now  prepared  for  the  Ethics  of  the  Bible,  the 
fruitage  of  Theology,  the  test  of  all  the  rest.  Biblical 
Ethics  presents  us  an  advancing  system  of  morals — God 
showing  His  holy  face  and  character  and  the  sublime 
precepts  of  morality  as  men  were  able  to  bear  them. 

In  the  field  of  Biblical  Ethics  there  is  considerable 
criticism  at  the  present  time.  Biblical  Ethics  have  not 
been  so  carefully  studied  as  Biblical  Religion  and  Bibli- 
cal Faith  ;  therefore  the  principles  that  determine  their 
development  are  not  so  clearly  understood.  There  is 
ample  room  for  criticism  in  the  ethical  precepts  and  in 
the  conduct  of  the  holy  men  of  the  Bible. 

The  ancient  worthies,  Noah  and  Abraham,  Jacob 
and  Judah,  David  and  Solomon,  were  in  a  low  stage 
of  moral  advancement.  Doubtless  it  is  true,  that  we 
would  not  receive  such  men  into  our  families,  if  they 
lived  among  us  and  did  such  things  now  as  they  did 
then.  We  might  be  obliged  to  send  them  to  prison, 
lest  they  should  defile  the  community  with  their  exam- 
ple. But  they  do  not  live  now ;  they  lived  in  an  early 
age  of  the  world,  when  the  divine  exposition  of  sin  was 
not  so  searching,  and  the  divine  law  of  righteousness 
was  not  so  evident.  They  were  not  great  sinners  to 
their  age ;  they  were  the  saints  of  God. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  57 

Abraham  was  the  father  of  the  faithful,*  the  great 
hero  of  faith  for  all  time,  and  it  is  an  honor  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  count  him  as  father.  When  he  went  into  the 
abode  of  the  dead,  he  held  his  pre-eminence  among  the 
departed.  He  made  up  for  his  defects  in  this  life  by 
advancing  in  the  school  of  sanctification  there  open  to 
him.  Let  us  not  suppose  that  we  have  passed  beyond 
him  in  sinlessness  or  ethical  elevation.  Our  blessed 
Lord  sees  the  poor  Lazarus  in  Abraham's  bosom,  the 
synonym  of  Paradise  itself.f 

Jacob  was  crafty  and  treacherous,  but  he  was  a  pil- 
grim to  the  Holy  Land,  one  whose  whole  ambition 
was  set  upon  the  holy  places,  one  who  is  the  father  of 
all  pilgrims,  one  who,  therefore,  gave  his  name  to  the 
Holy  Land  and  to  the  entire  Israel  of  God. 

We  should  look  more  at  their  saintly  characters  that 
have  given  them  their  place  among  the  heroes  of  the 
faithful.  Thus  we  would  trace  the  moral  development 
of  Israel,  and  see  it  advancing  through  the  centuries 
until  it  reaches  its  height  in  the  holy  Messiah. 

It  has  been  too  much  the  custom  to  use  the  ancient 
heroes  of  the  faith  as  examples  to  rebuke  modern  sin- 
ners. They  ought  to  be  held  up  as  examples  to  make 
modern  heroes.  And  so  it  has  been  thought  that  Israel 
was  a  nation  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  stiff  neck  and 
stubborn  heart,  for  its  unfaithfulness  and  its  apostasy. 
Not  so  do  we  read  in  the  Old  Testament.  Israel  was 
the  people  of  God,  dearly  beloved,  and  faithful  in  the 
main,  ever  advancing,  never  attaining  the  ideal.  I  fear 
that  the  Christian  Church  does  not  present  so  good  a 
history  as  the  people  of  Israel  in  the  olden  time.  If 
Israel  did  not  live  up  to  the  ethical  principles  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  have  we  lived  up  to  the  ethics  of 

*  Rom.  iv.  16-17.  t  Luke  xvi.  23. 


58  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Jesus  and  His  apostles?  It  is  just  this  feature  of  Bib- 
lical Ethics  that  assures  us  that  divine  authority  is  in  it. 
It  presents  an  ideal  ever  far  above  historical  reality. 

The  Ten  Words  rise  before  us  in  majesty  as  the  guide 
of  morality  for  the  Christian  Church,  and  are  as  au- 
thoritative as  when  first  uttered  by  a  divine  voice  from 
Sinai. 

Most  of  the  ethical  provisions  of  the  Pentateuchal 
codes  were  of  local  and  temporal  validity,  but  there  are 
many  principles  in  them  that  are  invaluable  hints  for 
the  solution  of  the  social  problems  of  our  day.  There 
are  ethical  precepts  in  the  Psalter  and  the  Prophets, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  Wisdom  Literature  of  the  Old 
Testament  that  we  need  to  study  and  to  know.  It  is  a 
very  significant  fact  that  this  Wisdom  Literature  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  is  essentially  ethical,  has  been  so 
neglected  by  theologians.  The  Book  of  Proverbs, 
the  Book  of  Job,  the  Song  of  Songs,  and  Ecclesiastes 
are  the  masterpieces  of  Old  Testament  ethics.  No  por- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  is  likely  to  prove  more 
useful  in  the  ethical  age  upon  which  we  are  now  enter- 
ing.    The  holy  God  calls  holy  men  into  His  service : 

"  Who  of  us  can  abide  with  devouring  fire  ? 
Who  of  us  can  abide  with  everlasting  burnings  ? 
One  walking  in  perfect  righteousness,  and  speaking  uprightly, 
Refusing  the  spoil  of  oppression, 
Shaking  his  palms  from  holding  a  bribe, 
Shutting  his  ears  from  hearing  of  bloodshed, 
And  closing  his  eyes  from  seeing  evil."* 

If  the  ethical  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  have  been 
neglected,  this  is  still  more  the  case  with  the  ethical 
parts  of  the  New  Testament.  It  has  been  said  that 
Calvinists  come  to  a  halt  in  a  certain  chapter  of  the 

*  Is.  xxxiii.  15  seq. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  59 

Epistle  to  the  Romans,  but  it  may  also  be  said  that  the 
Arminians  come  to  a  halt  but  a  short  distance  further 
on.  Neither  Calvinist  nor  Arminian  has  risen  to  the 
ethical  heights  of  the  closing  chapters  of  the  epistles 
to  the  Romans  and  the  Ephesians.  The  Epistle  of 
James  is  ethical  throughout ;  it  has  not  been  a  favorite 
epistle  for  Protestants.  The  epistles  of  John  have  been 
too  high  in  their  mystic  elevation  for  the  modern  world. 

But  the  greatest  sin  against  the  Bible  has  been 
the  neglect  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus.  If  one  studies 
the  theology  of  Jesus  he  is  impressed  by  the  fact 
that  it  is  profoundly  ethical,  not  only  in  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount,  but  also  throughout  His  discourses. 
The  holy  man,  living  such  a  holy  life,  how  could  it  be 
otherwise  than  that  holy  words  were  ever  on  His  lips? 
Those  who  question  the  historicity  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
and  regard  many  of  His  teachings  as  misunderstood  by 
the  evangelists  who  report  them,  stand  in  awe  and  bow 
in  adoration  when  they  consider  His  ethical  precepts 
and  recognize  their  divinity. 

Tolstoi  says  Christians  think  that  Jesus  did  not  mean 
what  He  said.  Tolstoi's  criticism  is  severe,  but  is  it 
not  just  ?  If  we  really  believed  that  Jesus  meant  what 
He  said,  how  could  we  live  such  selfish  lives  ? 
The  words  of  Jesus  are  so  high  above  us  that  it 
seems  impossible  to  realize  them  in  actual  life,  and 
so  we  strive  to  get  a  meaning  out  of  them  that  will 
be  useful  to  us,  and  we  bury  the  sublime  ideal  in  a 
fictitious  and  temporary  explanation.*    It  is  my  opinion 


*  "  The  ecclesiastical  Christ  is  to  a  large  extent  not  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels, 
but  a  creation  of  scholastic  theology.  Notwithstanding  all  our  preaching, 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  well  known.  That  He  is  not  well  known  is  partly  the  fault 
of  our  preaching.  Men  are  not  permitted  to  see  Jesus  with  open  face,  but  only 
through  the  thick  veil  of  a  dogmatic  system.  The  religious  spirit  of  Jesus, 
His  attitude  towards  the  religion  in  vogue  in  J  udasa  in  His  time,  and  its  grounds, 


£0  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

that  if  the  grace  of  God  should  so  impel  a  man  that  he 
could  be  transformed  into  the  image  of  the  holy  Jesus, 
and,  like  Jesus,  rebuke  sin  in  high  places  and  trouble 
the  people  with  his  unapproachable  holiness,  he  would 
earn  the  reward  of  Jesus  even  in  this  generation — at  the 
hands  of  Christian  theologians  and  ecclesiastics.  The 
cry  would  resound  through  the  streets  of  New  York, 
"  Crucify  him  !  crucify  him  !  " 

The  words  of  Jesus,  like  the  life  of  Jesus,  are  the 
ideals  of  perfection,  that  men  thus  far  have  been  unable 
to  understand  and  realize ;  but  they  will  be  realized  when 
the  world  has  been  so  trained  and  disciplined  in  the 
progress  of  sanctification  that  it  shall  become  like  Him. 

D—  THE  MESSIAH. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  of  the  Messiah  only  indi- 
rectly ;  but  every  line  of  religion,  doctrine,  and  morals 
has  brought  us  unto  Him.  The  Messiah  is  the  culmi- 
nation of  the  Old  Testament.  He  is  the  pivot  of  His- 
tory. All  through  these  nineteen  centuries  Christians 
have  been  learning  from  their  Lord,  and  yet  how  little 
do  we  know  of  Him.  Each  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  has  been  so  deeply  impressed  with  some  small 
portion  of  what  the  Scriptures  have  revealed  about 
Him,  that  it  has  devoted  itself  exclusively  to  that,  has 
exaggerated  that,  and  left  other  equally  important 
phases  of  the  doctrine  unexplored. 

Sometimes  the  deity  of  Christ  has  been  so  exalted 

His  humane  sympathies,  His  thoughts  of  God,  His  ethical  ideal,  have  been 
allowed  to  fall  into  the  background.  Hence  types  of  piety  have  sprung  up 
within  the  Church,  which,  whatever  virtues  they  may  possess,  are  not  charac- 
teristically Christian.  It  has  become  possible  to  be  very  religious  and  yet  be 
very  unchristian,  not  only  largely  ignorant  of  Christ,  but  antagonistic  to  Him 
in  spirit ;  to  be,  in  short,  a  modern  reproduction  of  the  Pharisee,  imagining 
one's  self  to  be  one  of  the  most  faithful  friends  of  Jesus,  while  hostile  to  all  the 
true  Christian  interests  of  the  time." — A.  B.  Bruce,  Kingdom  of  God,  p.  330. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  Ql 

that  men  have  forgotten  His  humanity.  Then  others 
have  been  so  absorbed  in  the  wonders  of  His  humanity 
that  they  have  not  seen  His  divinity.  Then  the  com- 
plex nature,  the  union  of  the  human  and  divine  in  the 
Theanthropos, — the  profoundest  minds  of  the  Christian 
centuries  have  thought  upon  it  and  unfolded  some  of 
its  glories,  but  it  is  still  like  the  very  heavens  for  heights 
of  mystery  and  glory.  The  Messiah's  state  of  humilia- 
tion has  so  absorbed  men  that  they  have  neglected  His 
state  of  exaltation  and  glory.  In  His  state  of  humilia- 
tion modern  Protestants  have  absorbed  themselves 
in  the  crucifixion  and  death,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement  involved  therein.  The  wondrous  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  has  been  neglected  until  recent 
times.*  It  was  the  merit  of  my  beloved  teacher,  Henry 
B.  Smith,  that  he  made  Incarnation  in  order  to  Redemp- 
tion\  the  structural  principle  of  his  theology.  The 
holy  life  of  Jesus,  long  neglected,  has  in  recent  years 
been  studied  as  never  before.  But  the  Messiah's  de- 
scent into  the  abode  of  the  dead — a  doctrine  of  great 
importance  to  the  ancient  Church  % — of  His  resurrec- 
tion— His  enthronement — His  reign  of  grace — His 
second  advent — O,  how  these  have  been  neglected  ! 

The  Messianic  idea  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
Christology  of  the  New  Testament  are  vastly  fuller  and 
richer  and  grander  than  any  one  has  imagined.  The 
Christ  of  the  Bible  will  exert  a  much  greater  power 
upon  the  coming  generations  when  they  grasp  the  full 
Biblical  doctrine  and  cease  expending  their  strength 
and  exhausting  their  energies  in  the  speculative  elabo- 
ration of  some  few  of  its  phases.  § 

*  Whit  tier,  pp.  112  seq. 

t  Henry  B.  Smith's  System  of  Christian  Theology. 

X  See  Redemption  after  Death.    Mag.  Christ.  Lit.,  Dec,  1889. 

§  How  shall  we  Revise  ?  pp.  20  seq. 


62  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  | 

In  all  departments  of  Biblical  Theology  there  is  new 
life  and  new  doctrine  and  new  morals  for  the  Church  of 
God.  More  light  is  about  to  break  forth  from  the  Ho- 
ly Scriptures  upon  the  Christian  world, — light  for  all  the 
churches,  for  all  men,  for  all  nations.  The  old  methods 
of  building  on  selected  texts  and  isolated  passages, 
which  you  will  find  in  all  the  creeds  and  in  all  the  dog- 
matic systems,*  is  about  to  pass  away.  The  inductive 
study  of  the  Bible  forces  us  to  study  every  word,  sen- 
tence, and  clause,  and  rise  in  the  inductive  process  un- 
til the  whole  organism  of  the  Bible  is  presented  to  us. 
Such  study  of  the  Bible,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
pursue  it,  has  made  it  to  me  the  freshest,  the  newest, 
the  most  wonderful  of  Books;  has  brought  about  in  my 
mind  a  different  conception  in  every  department  of 
Theology.  And  many  of  those  things  that  once  seemed 
to  be  probabilities  on  the  basis  of  speculative  theology 
and  confessional  theology  have,  in  the  light  of  God's 
Word  and  in  the  conviction  of  divine  authority,  come 
to  be  certainties — the  verities  of  God. 

I  have  not  departed  in  any  respect  from  the  ortho- 
dox teaching  of  the  Christian  Church  as  set  forth  in  its 
official  creeds.  I  have  had  the  inestimable  privilege  of 
learning,  as  a  student  and  a  friend,  from  two  of  the  great- 
est Systematic  Theologians  of  our  century — Henry  B. 
Smith  and  Isaac  A.  Dorner.  These  built  upon  the 
Bible  and  the  Creeds,  the  History  of  Doctrine  and  the 
highest  attainments  of  the  Human  Reason.  Such  Sys- 
tematic Theologians  the  Church  greatly  needs  at  the 
present  time,  and  no  one  can  value  them  and  their 
work  more  than  I  do.  These  never  set  up  their  systems 
as  tests  of  orthodoxy.     They  renounce  scholasticism 


*  How  shall  we  Revise  ?  pp.  137  seq. 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  Q$ 

and  dogmatism.  For  the  dogmatism  of  mere  traditional 
opinion  and  of  the  dogmaticians,  I  have  no  respect. 
Their  speculations  are  worthy  of  no  more  consideration 
than  the  speculations  of  other  scholars.  But  for  the 
creeds  of  Christ's  Church  I  have  the  greatest  respect, 
for  I  am  one  of  those  who  believes  that  God  inhabits 
His  Church  and  guides  it  in  its  official  decisions,  not 
inerrantly  in  every  utterance,  but  in  the  essential  doc- 
trines in  which  the  universal  Church  is  in  concord. 
But  the  theology  of  the  creeds  marks  only  the  con- 
sensus of  attainment  of  the  Church  in  the  several  stages 
of  advance  in  the  history  of  doctrine.  They  are  far  be- 
low the  Biblical  ideal,  and,  therefore,  the  best  of  them 
seems  to  give  us  such  a  small  theology  when  set  in  the 
length  and  breadth,  the  heights  and  depths  of  the  the- 
ology of  the  Bible. 

As  I  have  recently  said,  "  Christian  churches  should 
go  right  on  in  the  lines  drawn  by  their  own  history  and 
their  own  symbols ;  this  will  in  the  end  lead  to  greater 
heights,  in  which  there  will  be  concord.  Imperfect 
statements  will  be  corrected  by  progress.  All  forms  of 
error  will  disappear  before  the  breath  of  truth.  We  are 
not  to  tear  down  what  has  cost  our  fathers  so  much. 
We  are  rather  to  strengthen  the  foundations  and  but- 
tress the  buildings  as  we  build  higher.  Let  the  light 
shine  higher  and  higher,  the  clear,  bright  light  of  day. 
Truth  fears  no  light.  Light  chases  error  away.  True 
orthodoxy  seeks  the  full  blaze  of  the  noontide  sun. 
In  the  light  of  such  a  day  the  unity  of  Christendom 
will  be  gained."  * 

*  Whither,  pp.  297-8. 


64  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

IV. — THE  HARMONY  OF  THE   SOURCES  OF  DIVINE 
AUTHORITY. 

I  have  endeavored  to  lead  you  through  the  obstruc- 
tions that  confront  the  student  of  the  Bible  into  the 
Holy  Word  itself,  that  you  might  recognize  the  au- 
thority of  God  in  the  Religion,  Faith,  and  Morals  of 
the  Bible.  I  must  now  ask  you  to  go  back  with  me 
and  use  the  advantages  we  have  gained  for  a  brief  re- 
view of  those  other  seats  of  divine  authority — the 
Church  and  the  Reason. 

If  God  really  speaks  to  men  in  these  three  centres, 
there  ought  to  be  no  contradiction  between  them. 
They  ought  to  be  complementary,  and  they  should 
combine  in  a  higher  unity  for  the  guidance  and  the 
comfort  of  men.  It  is  my  profound  conviction  that  we 
are  on  the  threshold  of  just  such  a  happy  reconciliation. 
The  discrepancies  that  men  have  found  have  not  been 
in  the  authority  of  God  Himself,  or  in  the  essential 
principles  that  have  enveloped  it,  but  in  those  formal 
and  circumstantial  things  upon  which  human  nature  in 
its  weakness  and  its  depravity  ever  lays  so  much  stress. 
Removing  these  human  conceits  and  follies  and  these 
obstructions  erected  by  well-meaning  but  misguided 
men  from  the  Bible,  the  Church,  and  the  Reason,  it 
will  be  manifest  that  they  are,  they  always  have  been, 
and  they  always  will  be  harmonious. 

It  is  human  folly  to  set  the  Bible  against  the  Church, 
or  either  or  both  of  them  against  the  Reason.  When- 
ever this  is  done,  the  opposition  is  only  in  the  human 
forms  and  settings.  It  is  clear  to  me  that  the  Bible 
needs  the  Church  and  the  Reason  ere  it  can  exert  its 
full  power  upon  the  life  of  men. 

Institutional  Christianity  was  established  by  Christ 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  (35 

and  His  apostles,  and  no  one  can  safely  ignore  it.  It  is 
the  need  of  our  time  in  that  advance  toward  Church 
Unity  that  we  are  about  to  make,  and  to  make  with  so 
much  energy  and  decision.  It  is  necessary  that  we 
should  know  what  Institutional  Christianity  really  is, 
that  we  should  be  members  of  the  visible  Church  and 
share  in  the  sacrifices  and  triumphs  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  Bible,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  leads 
us  through  its  forms  into  the  presence-chamber  of  God, 
but  our  minds  are  filled  at  the  same  time  with  the  his- 
toric forms  of  the  ancient  world.  It  is  the  office  of  the 
Church,  in  the  use  of  its  institutions,  to  bring  us  into 
communion  with  the  Triune  God  in  the  forms  of  the 
modern  world,  and  give  us  the  assurance  of  His  pres- 
ence with  the  Church  through  its  history,  and  with  us 
in  the  hour  and  moment  of  our  use  of  its  institutions. 
The  Church  unites  with  the  Bible  in  giving  us  the  as- 
surance of  God's  presence  and  authority  throughout 
History,  Christian  as  well  as  Hebrew,  and  of  His  gra- 
cious help  in  the  present.  It  gives  us  the  blessed  ex- 
perience of  the  communion  of  saints.  It  opens  the 
eyes  to  see  that  we  are  in  the  outer  ranks  of  innumer- 
able lines  of  the  host  of  the  living  God,  ever  on  the 
marcn  through  the  life  in  this  world  into  the  gates  of 
Paradise  and  onward  on  the  highway  of  holiness  to 
the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb  which  ever  bounds 
the  horizon  of  the  beatific  vision.  The  neglect  of  the 
Church  as  a  means  of  grace  retards  the  use  of  the 
Bible  itself  as  a  means  of  grace  and  dulls  our  sensitive- 
ness to  the  presence  of  God. 

The  Reason  also  has  its  rights,  its  place  and  import- 
ance in  the  economy  of  Redemption.  I  rejoice  at  the 
age  of  Rationalism,  with  all  its  wonderful  achieve- 
ments in  philosophy.     I  look  upon  it  as  preparing  men 


QQ  THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

to  use  their  reasons  in  the  last  great  age  of  the  world. 
Criticism  will  go  on  with  its  destruction  of  errors,  and 
its  verification  of  truth  and  fact.  The  human  mind 
will  learn  to  know  its  powers  and  to  use  them.  The 
forms  of  the  reason,  the  conscience,  the  religious  feel- 
ing, the  aesthetic  taste — all  the  highest  energies  of  our 
nature,  will  exert  themselves  as  never  before.  God 
will  appear  in  their  forms,  and  give  an  inward  assur- 
ance and  certainty  greater  than  that  given  in  former 
ages.  These  increased  powers  of  the  human  soul  will 
enable  men  to  search  those  higher  mysteries  of  Biblical 
Theology  that  no  theologian  has  yet  mastered,  and 
those  mysteries  that  are  wrapt  up  in  the  institutions  of 
the  Church,  to  all  who  really  know  them.  It  is  im- 
possible that  the  Bible  and  the  Church  should  ever  ex- 
ert their  full  power  until  the  human  Reason,  trained 
and  strained  to  the  uttermost,  rise  to  the  heights  of 
its  energies,  and  reach  forth  after  God  and  His  Christ 
with  absolute  devotion  and  self-renouncing  love.  Then 
we  may  expect  on  the  heights  of  theological  specula- 
tion, and  from  the  peaks  of  Christian  experience,  that 
those  profound  doctrines  that  now  divide  Christendom 
by  their  antinomies  will  appear  as  the  two  sides  of  the 
same  law,  or  the  foci  of  a  divine  ellipse,  which  is  itself 
but  one  of  the  curves  in  that  conic  section  of  God's 
dominion,  in  which,  in  loving  wisdom,  He  has  appointed 
the  lines  of  our  destiny. 

Go  out  into  the  country  in  the  late  winter  or  early 
spring,  and  you  will  see,  everywhere,  great  activity. 
The  farmers  are  at  work  with  axe,  and  saw,  and  knives, 
the  instruments  of  destruction,  cutting  off  the  limbs  of 
trees,  and  pruning  vines  and  bushes,  and  rooting  out 
weeds ;  fires  are  running  over  the  fields  and  meadows, 
the  air  is  filled  with  smoke,  and  it  seems  as  if  every- 


THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  QJ 

thing  were  going  to  destruction.  But  they  are  de- 
stroying the  dead  wood,  dry  and  brittle  stubble,  and 
noxious  weeds.  They  are  removing  them  out  of  the 
way  of  the  life  that  is  beating  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  ground,  and  throbbing  in  tree  and  bush.  In  a  few 
days  the  fields  will  be  mantled  in  living  green,  the 
trees  and  bushes  will  wave  their  leaves  joyously,  and 
deck  themselves  with  blossoms  of  every  variety  of 
beauteous  form  and  color,  and  the  world  will  rejoice  in 
a  new  spring-time.  Thus  is  it  at  the  present  time  in 
the  higher  world  of  religion  and  morals.  Criticism  is 
at  work  with  knife  and  fire.  Let  us  cut  down  every- 
thing that  is  dead  and  harmful,  every  kind  of  dead 
orthodoxy,  every  species  of  effete  ecclesiasticism, 
all  merely  formal  morality,  all  those  dry  and  brittle 
fences  that  constitute  denominationalism,  and  are  the 
barriers  of  Church  Unity.  Let  us  burn  up  every  form 
of  false  doctrine,  false  religion,  and  false  practice.  Let 
us  remove  every  incumbrance  out  of  the  way  for  a  new 
life ;  the  life  of  God  is  moving  throughout  Christen- 
dom, and  the  spring-time  of  a  new  age  is  about  to  come 
upon  us : 

"  Let  the  wilderness  and  the  solitary  places  be  glad, 
And  let  the  desert  rejoice,  and  let  it  blossom  as  the  rose ; 
Let  it  blossom  abundantly,  and  let  it  rejoice, 
Even  with  joy  and  singing  ; 
The  glory  of  Lebanon  has  been  given  unto  it, 
The  excellency  of  Carmel  and  Sharon ; 
They  see  the  glory  of  Jahveh, 
The  excellency  of  our  God. 
Strengthen  ye  the  weak  hands, 
And  confirm  the  feeble  knees. 
Say  to  the  fearful  of  heart,  Be  strong, 
Fear  not :  behold  your  God, 

He  cometh  with  vengeance,  with  a  divine  recompense ; 
He  cometh  to  save  you.'' — (Isai.  xxxv.  1-4.) 


[It  has  been  thought  best  to  give  the  following  extract  from  Dr. 
Briggs'  "Biblical  Study" pp.  390  seq.,  which  presents  his  views 
of  the  idea,  place,  methods,  and  divisions  of  Biblical  Theology.  ] 


IV. 

THE    POSITION    AND    IMPORTANCE    OF 
BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

Having  considered  the  origin  and  history  of  Biblical 
Theology,  we  are  now  prepared  to  show  its  position  and 
importance,  and  define  it  as  to  its  idea,  method,  and  sys- 
tem. (1)  The  idea  of  Biblical  Theology. — Biblical  The- 
ology is  that  theological  discipline  which  presents  the 
theology  of  the  Bible  in  its  historical  formation  within 
the  canonical  writings.  The  discipline  limits  itself 
strictly  to  the  theology  of  the  Bible,  and  thus  excludes 
from  its  range  the  theology  of  the  Apocryphal  and  Pseu- 
depigraphical  writings  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  sects, 
the  ideas  of  the  various  external  religious  parties,  and 
the  religions  of  the  world  brought  in  contact  with  the 
people  of  God  at  different  periods  in  their  history.  It 
is  true  that  these  must  come  into  consideration  for  com- 
parative purposes  in  order  to  show  their  influence  posi- 
tively and  negatively  upon  the  development  of  Biblical 
doctrine ;  for  the  Biblical  religion  is  a  religion  in  the 
midst  of  a  great  variety  of  religions  of  the  world,  and 
its  distinctive  features  can  be  shown  only  after  the  elim- 
ination of  the  features  that  are  common  with  other  re- 
ligions. We  must  show  from  the  historical  circumstances, 
the  psychological  preparations,  and  all  the  conditioning 

(69) 


70  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

influences,  how  far  the  origin  and  development  of  the 
particular  type  and  the  particular  stage  of  religious  de- 
velopment of  Israel  and  the  Church  were  influenced  by 
these  external  forces.  We  must  find  the  supernatural 
influence  that  originated  and  maintained  the  Biblical 
types  and  the  Biblical  religion  as  distinct  and  separate 
from  all  other  religions.  And  then  these  other  religious 
forces  will  not  be  employed  as  co-ordinate  factors  with 
the  Biblical  material,  as  is  done  by  Reuss,  Schwegler, 
and  Kuenen,  who  make  Biblical  Theology  simply  a  his- 
tory of  religion,  or  of  doctrine  in  the  times  of  the  Bible 
and  in  the  Jewish  nation.  Rather  these  theological  con- 
ceptions of  other  religions  will  be  seen  to  be  subordinate 
factors  as  influencing  Biblical  Theology  from  without, 
and  not  from  within,  as  presenting  the  external  occa- 
sions and  conditions  of  its  growth,  and  not  its  normal 
and  regulative  principles.  The  Biblical  limit  will  be 
maintained  ;  for  the  Biblical  material  stands  apart  by 
itself,  in  that  the  theology  therein  contained  is  the 
theology  of  a  divine  Revelation,  and  thus  distinguished 
from  all  other  theologies,  both  as  to  its  origin  and  its 
development ;  for  they  give  us  either  the  products  of 
natural  religion  in  various  normal  and  abnormal  sys- 
tems, originating  and  developing  under  the  influence  of 
unguided  or  partially  guided  human  religious  strivings, 
or  else  are  apostasies  or  deflections  from  the  religion  of 
revelation  in  its  various  stages  of  development. 

The  discipline  we  have  defined  as  presenting  the  The- 
ology of  the  Bible.  It  is  true  that  the  term  Biblical  The- 
ology is  ambiguous  as  being  too  broad,  having  been  em- 
ployed as  a  general  term  including  Biblical  Introduction, 
Hermeneutics,  and  so  on.  And  yet  we  must  have  a  broad 
term,  for  we  cannot  limit  our  discipline  to  Dogmatics,  for 
Biblical  Dogmatics,  as  rightly  conceived,  is  a  part  of  Sys- 


THE  IDEA  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  71 

tematic  Theology,  beingapriori and  deductive  in  method. 
Biblical  Dogmatics  deduces  the  dogmas  from  the  Bibli- 
cal material  and  arranges  them  in  an  a  priori  dogmatic 
system,  presenting  not  so  much  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  in  their  simplicity  and  in  their  concrete  form  as 
they  are  given  in  the  Scriptures  themselves,  but  such 
doctrines  as  may  be  fairly  derived  from  the  Biblical  ma- 
terial by  the  logical  process,  or  can  be  gained  by  setting 
the  Bible  in  the  midst  of  philosophy  and  church  tradition. 
We  cannot  deny  to  this  department  the  propriety  of  using 
the  name  Biblical  Dogmatics  or  even  Biblical  Theology. 
For  where  a  Dogmatic  system  derives  its  chief  or  only 
material  from  the  Scriptures,  there  is  force  in  its  claim 
to  be  Biblical  Theology.  We  do  not,  therefore,  use  the 
term  Biblical  Theology  as  applied  to  our  discipline  with 
the  implication  that  a  dogmatic  system  derived  from  the 
Bible  is  7Z0«-Biblical  or  not  sufficiently  Biblical,  but  as  a 
term  which  has  come  to  be  applied  to  the  discipline 
which  we  are  now  distinguishing  from  Biblical  Dogmat- 
ics. Biblical  Theology,  in  the  sense  of  our  discipline, 
and  as  distinguished  from  Biblical  Dogmatics,  cannot 
take  a  step  beyond  the  Bible  itself,  or,  indeed,  beyond 
the  particular  writing  or  author  under  consideration  at 
the  time.  Biblical  Theology  has  to  do  only  with  the 
sacred  author's  conceptions,  and  has  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  legitimate  logical  consequences.  It  is 
not  to  be  assumed  that  either  the  author  or  his  genera- 
tion argued  out  the  consequences  of  their  statements, 
still  less  discerned  them  by  intuition ;  although,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  must  always  recognize  that  the  religion 
and,  indeed,  the  entire  theology  of  a  period  or  an  au- 
thor may  be  far  wider  and  more  comprehensive  than  the 
record  or  records  that  have  been  left  of  it ;  and  that,  in 
all  cases,  Biblical  Theology  will  give  us  the  minimum 


72  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

rather  than  the  maximum  of  the  theology  of  a  period  or 
author.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  also  estimate 
the  fact  that  this  minimum  is  the  inspired  authority  to 
which  alone  we  can  appeal.  The  only  consequences 
with  which  Biblical  Theology  has  to  do  are  those  his- 
torical ones  that  later  Biblical  writers  gained  in  their  ad- 
vanced knowledge  of  divine  revelation,  those  conclusions 
that  are  true  historically — whatever  our  subjective  con- 
clusions may  be  as  to  the  legitimate  logical  results  of 
their  statements.  And  even  here  the  interpretation  and 
use  of  later  writers  are  not  to  be  assigned  to  the  authors 
themselves  or  the  theology  of  their  times.  We  would 
therefore  urge  that  the  term  Biblical  Dogmatics  should 
be  applied  to  that  part  of  Dogmatics  which  rests  upon 
the  Bible  and  derives  its  material  from  the  Bible  by  the 
legitimate  use  of  its  principles.  Dogmatics  as  a  theo- 
logical discipline,  in  our  judgment,  is  far  wider  than  the 
Biblical  material  that  is  employed  by  the  dogmatician. 
The  Biblical  material  should  be  the  normal  and  regula- 
tive material,  but  the  dogmatician  will  make  use  of  the 
deductions  from  the  Bible  and  other  authorities  that  the 
Church  has  made  in  the  history  of  doctrine  and  incor- 
porated in  her  creeds  or  preserved  in  the  doctrinal  treat- 
ises of  the  theologians.  He  will  also  make  use  of  right 
reason,  and  of  philosophy,  and  science,  and  the  religious 
consciousness  as  manifest  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
and  in  the  Christian  life  of  the  day.  It  is  all-important 
that  the  various  sources  should  be  carefully  discrimina- 
ted, and  the  Biblical  material  set  apart  by  itself  in  Biblical 
Dogmatics,  lest  in  the  commingling  of  material,  that 
should  be  regarded  as  Biblical  which  is  non-BibUca.1,  or 
extra  Biblical,  or  contra  Biblical,  as  has  so  often  hap- 
pened in  the  working  of  ecclesiastical  tradition.  And, 
even  then,  when   Biblical  Dogmatics  has  been  distin- 


THE  IDEA  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  73 

guished  in  Systematic  Theology,  it  should  be  held  apart 
from  Biblical  Theology,  for  Biblical  Dogmatics  is  the 
point  of  contact  of  Systematic  Theology  with  Exegeti- 
cal  Theology,  and  Biblical  Theology  is  the  point  of  con- 
tact of  Exegetical  Theology  with  Systematic  Theology, 
each  belonging  to  its  own  distinctive  branch  of  theolo- 
gy with  its  characteristic  methods  and  principles.  That 
system  of  theology  which  would  anxiously  confine  it- 
self to  supposed  Biblical  material,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
material  presented  by  philosophy,  science,  literature, 
art,  comparative  religion,  the  history  of  doctrine,  the 
symbols,  the  liturgies,  and  the  life  of  the  Church,  and 
the  pious  religious  consciousness  of  the  individual  or  of 
Christian  society,  must  be  extremely  defective,  unscien- 
tific, and  cannot  make  up  for  its  defects  by  an  appeal  to 
the  Scriptures  and  a  claim  to  be  Biblical.  None  of  the 
great  systematic  theologians,  from  the  most  ancient 
times,  have  ever  proposed  any  such  course.  It  has  been 
the  resort  of  the  feebler  Pietists  in  Germany,  and  of  the 
narrower  Evangelicalism  of  Great  Britain  and  America, 
doomed  to  defeat  and  destruction,  for  working  in  such 
contracted  lines. 

We  do  not,  therefore,  present  Biblical  Theology  as  a 
substitute  for  Systematic  Theology.  Systematic  Theol- 
ogy is  more  comprehensive  than  Biblical  Theology  can 
ever  be.  But  we  urge  the  importance  of  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy in  order  to  the  important  distinction  that  should  be 
made,  in  the  first  place,  between  the  Biblical  sources  and 
all  other  sources  of  Theology,  and  then,  in  the  second 
place,  to  distinguish  between  the  Biblical  Theology  as 
presented  in  the  Scriptures  themselves,  and  Biblical 
Dogmatics  which  makes  legitimate  deductions  and  appli- 
cations of  the  Biblical  material. 

But  Biblical  Theology  is  wider  than  the  doctrines  of 


74  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

the  Bible.  It  includes  Ethics  also.  Here  the  school  of 
Baur,  and  even  Weiss  and  Van  Oosterzee,  would  stop. 
But  Schmid,  Schultz,  and  Oehler  are  correct  in  taking 
Biblical  Theology  to  include  religion  as  well  as  doc- 
trines and  morals,  that  is,  those  historic  persons,  facts, 
and  relations  which  embody  religious,  dogmatical,  and 
ethical  ideas.  This  discrimination  is  important  in  System- 
atic Theology,  but  it  is  indispensable  in  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy, where  everything  is  still  in  the  concrete.  Thus,  a 
fundamental  question  in  the  theology  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is  what  to  do  with  the  life  of  Jesus.  The  life  of 
Jesus  is,  as  Schmid  shows,  the  fruitful  source  of  His 
doctrine,  and  a  theology  which  does  not  estimate  it, 
lacks  foundation  and  vital  power.  The  life  of  Jesus  may 
indeed  be  regarded  from  two  distinct  points  of  view,  as 
a  biographical,  or  a  doctrinal  and  religious  subject.  The 
birth  of  Jesus  may  be  regarded  as  a  pure  historical  fact 
or  as  an  incarnation.  His  suffering  and  death  may  be 
historical  subjects,  or  as  expressing  atonement.  His  life 
may  afford  biographical  matter  or  be  considered  as  re- 
ligious, doctrinal,  and  ethical,  in  that  His  life  was  a  new 
religious  force,  a  redemptive  influence  and  an  ethical 
example.  Biblical  Theology  will  have  to  consider,  there- 
fore, what  the  life  of  Jesus  presents  for  its  various  de- 
partments. And  so  the  great  fact  of  Pentecost,  the 
Christophanies  to  Peter,  Paul,  and  John,  and  the  apos- 
tolic council  at  Jerusalem  must  all  be  brought  into 
consideration.  And  in  the  Old  Testament  we  must 
consider  the  various  covenants  and  the  religious  insti- 
tutions and  laws  that  were  grouped  about  them.  With- 
out religion,  with  its  persons,  events,  and  institutions, 
Biblical  Theology  would  lose  its  foundations,  and  with- 
out ethical  results  it  would  fail  of  its  rich  fruitage. 
We  state,  furthermore,  that  the  discipline  presents 


THE  PLACE  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  ?& 

the  theology  of  the  Bible  in  its  historical  formation. 
This  does  not  imply  that  it  limits  itself  to  the  consider- 
ation of  the  various  particular  conceptions  of  the  various 
authors,  writings,  and  periods,  as  Weiss  and  even  Oehler 
maintain,  but  with  Schmid,  Messner,  Van  Oosterzee 
after  Neander  it  seeks  the  unity  in  the  variety  ;  ascertains 
the  roots  of  the  divergencies,  traces  them  each  in  their 
separate  historical  development,  shows  them  co-operat- 
ing in  the  formation  of  one  organic  system.  For  Biblical 
Theology  would  not  present  a  mere  conglomerate  of 
heterogeneous  material  in  a  bundle  of  miscellaneous 
Hebrew  literature,  but  would  ascertain  whether  there  is 
not  some  principle  of  organization ;  and  it  finds  that 
principle  in  a  supernatural  divine  revelation  and  com- 
munication of  redemption  in  the  successive  covenants 
of  grace  extending  through  many  centuries,  operating 
through  many  minds,  and  in  a  great  variety  of  literary 
styles,  employing  all  the  faculties  of  man,  and  all  the 
types  of  human  nature,  in  order  to  the  accomplishment 
of  one  massive,  all-embracing,  and  everlasting  Divine 
Word  adapted  to  every  age,  every  nation,  every  type  of 
character,  every  temperament  of  mankind ;  the  whole 
world. 

(2)  The  Place  of  Biblical  Theology. — Biblical  Theology 
belongs  to  the  department  of  Exegetical  Theology  as  a 
higher  exegesis  completing  the  exegetical  process,  and 
presenting  the  essential  material  and  principles  of  the 
other  departments  of  theology. 

The  boundaries  between  Exegetical  and  Historical 
Theology  are  not  so  sharply  defined  as  those  between 
either  of  them  and  Systematic  Theology.  All  Histori- 
cal Theology  has  to  deal  with  sources,  and  in  this  re- 
spect must  consider  them  in  their  variety  and  unity  as 
well  as  development ;  and  hence  many  theologians  com- 


76  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

bine  Exegetical  Theology  and  Historical  Theology  un- 
der one  head — Historical  Theology.  It  is  important, 
however,  to  draw  the  distinction,  for  this  reason.  The 
sources  of  Biblical  Theology  are  in  different  relation 
from  the  sources  of  a  history  of  doctrine,  inasmuch  as 
they  constitute  a  body  of  divine  revelation,  and  in  this 
respect  to  be  kept  distinct  from  all  other  sources,  even 
cotemporary  and  of  the  same  nation.  They  have  an 
absolute  authority  which  no  other  sources  can  have. 
The  stress  is  to  be  laid  less  upon  their  historical  devel- 
opment than  upon  them  as  an  organic  body  of  revela- 
tion, and  this  stress  upon  their  importance  as  sources 
not  only  for  historical  development,  but  also  for  dog- 
matic reconstruction  and  practical  application,  requires 
that  the  special  study  of  them  should  be  exalted  to  a 
separate  discipline  and  a  distinct  branch  of  theology. 

Now  in  the  department  of  Exegetical  Theology,  Bib- 
lical Theology  occupies  the  highest  place,  the  latest  and 
crowning  achievement.  It  is  a  higher  exegesis  com- 
pleting the  Exegetical  Process.  All  other  branches  of 
Exegetical  Theology  are  presupposed  by  it.  The  Bib- 
lical Literature  must  first  be  studied  as  sacred  litera- 
ture. All  questions  of  date  of  writing,  integrity,  con- 
struction, style,  and  authorship  must  be  determined  by 
the  principles  of  the  Higher  Criticism.  Biblical  Can- 
onics  determines  the  extent  and  authority  of  the  vari- 
ous writings  that  are  to  be  regarded  as  composing  the 
sacred  canon,  and  discriminates  them  from  all  other 
writings  by  the  criticism  of  the  believing  spirit  enlight- 
ened and  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Church. 
Biblical  Textual  Criticism  ascertains  the  true  text  of 
the  writings  in  the  study  of  MSS.  and  versions  and 
citations,  and  seeks  to  present  it  in  its  pure  primitive 
forms.     Biblical   Hermeneutics  lays  down  the  rules  of 


THE   PLACE  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  77 

Biblical  Interpretation,  and  Biblical  Exegesis  applies 
these  rules  to  the  various  particular  passages  of  the  sa- 
cred Scriptures.  Now  Biblical  Theology  accepts  all 
these  rules  and  results  thus  determined  and  applied. 
It  is  not  its  office  to  go  into  the  detailed  examination 
of  the  verse  and  the  section,  but  it  must  accept  the  re- 
sults of  a  thorough  exegesis  and  criticism  in  order  to 
advance  thereon  and  thereby  to  its  own  proper  work  of 
higher  exegesis  ;  namely,  rising  from  the  comparison  of 
verse  with  verse,  and  paragraph  with  paragraph,  where 
simple  exegesis  is  employed,  to  the  still  more  difficult 
and  instructive  comparison  of  writing  with  writing,  au- 
thor with  author,  period  with  period,  until  by  generaliz- 
ation and  synthesis  the  theology  of  the  Bible  is  at- 
tained as  an  organic  whole. 

Biblical  Theology  is  thus  the  culmination  of  Exeget- 
ical  Theology,  and  must  be  in  an  important  relation  to 
all  other  branches  of  theology.  For  Historical  Theol- 
ogy it  presents  the  great  principles  of  the  various  periods 
of  history,  the  fundamental  and  controlling  tendencies 
which,  springing  from  human  nature  and  operating  in 
all  the  religions  of  the  world,  find  their  proper  expres- 
sion and  satisfaction  in  the  normal  development  of 
Divine  Revelation,  but  which,  breaking  loose  from  these 
salutary  bonds,  become  perverted  and  distorted  into 
abnormal  forms,  producing  false  and  heretical  principles 
and  radical  errors.  And  so  in  the  Biblical  unity  of  these 
tendencies  Biblical  Theology  presents  the  ideal  unity 
for  the  Church  and  the  Christian  in  all  times  of  the 
world's  history.  For  Systematic  Theology,  Biblical 
Theology  affords  the  holy  material  to  be  used  in  Bib- 
lical Apologetics,  Dogmatics,  and  Ethics,  the  funda- 
mental and  controlling  material  out  of  which  that 
systematic  structure  must  be  built  which  will  express 


78  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

the  intellectual  and  moral  needs  of  the  particular  age, 
fortify  the  Church  for  offence  and  defence  in  the  strug- 
gles with  the  anti-Christian  world,  and  give  unity  to  its 
life,  its  efforts,  and  its  dogmas  in  all  ages.  For  Practi- 
cal Theology  it  presents  the  various  types  of  religious 
experience  and  of  doctrinal  and  ethical  ideas  which  must 
be  skilfully  applied  to  the  corresponding  differences  of 
type  which  exist  in  all  times,  in  all  churches,  in  all 
lands,  and  indeed  in  all  religions  and  races  of  mankind. 
Biblical  Theology  is  indeed  the  Irenic  force  which  will 
do  much  to  harmonize  the  antagonistic  forces  and  va- 
rious departments  of  theology,  and  bring  about  that 
reconciliation  within  the  church,  which  is  the  greatest 
requisite  of  our  times. 

(3)  Method  of  Biblical  Theology. — The  method  em- 
ployed by  Biblical  Theology  is  a  blending  of  the  genetic 
and  the  inductive  methods.  The  method  of  Biblical 
Theology  arises  out  of  the  nature  of  the  discipline  and 
its  place  in  Theological  Encyclopaedia.  As  it  must 
show  the  Theology  of  the  Bible  in  its  historic  formation, 
ascertain  its  genesis,  the  laws  of  its  development  from 
germinal  principles,  the  order  of  its  progress  in  every 
individual  writer,  and  from  writer  to  writer  and  age  to 
age  in  the  successive  periods  and  in  the  whole  Bible,  it 
must  employ  the  genetic  method.  It  is  this  genesis 
which  is  becoming  more  and  more  important  in  our 
discipline,  and  is  indeed  the  chief  point  of  discussion  in 
our  day.  Can  all  be  explained  by  a  natural  genesis,  or 
must  the  supernatural  be  called  in  ?  The  various  Ra- 
tionalistic efforts  to  explain  the  genesis  of  the  Biblical 
types  of  doctrine  in  their  variety  and  their  combination 
in  a  unity  in  the  Scriptures  are  extremely  unsatisfactory 
and  unscientific.  With  all  the  resemblances  to  other 
religions,  the  Biblical  religion  is  so  different  that  its 


METHOD  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  79 

differences  must  be  explained,  and  these  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  claims  of  the  sacred  writers  themselves, 
that  God  Himself  in  various  forms  of  Theophany  and 
Christophany  revealed  Himself  to  initiate  and  to  guide 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  in  its  various  movements  and 
stages.  Mosaism  centres  about  the  great  Theophany  of 
Sinai,  as  Christianity  centres  about  the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  life,  death,  ascension,  and  second 
advent  therein  involved.  It  is  now  the  problem  of 
Biblical  Theology,  as  it  has  traced  the  Theology  of  the 
Jewish  Christian  type  to  the  Theophany  of  Pentecost, 
and  of  the  Pauline  to  the  Christophany  on  the  way  to 
Damascus,  so  to  trace  the  Johannean  type  and  the  vari- 
ous Old  Testament  types  to  corresponding  supernatural 
initiation.  The  Johannean  type  may  be  traced  to  the 
Christophanies  of  Patmos.*  The  Old  Testament  is  full 
of  Theophanies  which  originate  particular  Covenants 
and  initiate  all  the  great  movements  in  the  history  of 
Israel. 

As  it  has  to  exhibit  the  unity  in  the  variety  of  the 
various  conceptions  and  statements  of  the  writings  and 
authors  of  every  different  type,  style,  and  character,  and 
by  comparison  generalize  to  its  results,  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy must  employ  the  inductive  method  and  the  synthet- 
ic process.  This  inductive  method  is  the  true  method 
of  Exegetical  Theology.  The  details  of  Exegesis  have 
been  greatly  enriched  by  this  method  during  the  pres- 
ent century,  especially  by  the  labors  of  German  divines, 
and  in  most  recent  times  by  numerous  laborers  in  Great 
Britain  and  America.     But  the  majority  of  the  laborers 

*  We  regard  the  Apocalypse  as  the  earliest  of  the  Johannean  writings.  The 
Christophanies  therein  described  had  been  granted  to  the  apostle  prior  to  the 
composition  of  the  Gospel,  so  that  the  Gospel  was  written  under  their  influence 
still  more  even  than  under  the  recollection  of  the  association  with  Jesus  during 
His  earthly  ministry. 


gQ  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

in  Biblical  Theology  have  devoted  their  strength  to 
the  working  out  of  the  historical  principle  of  our  disci- 
pline. Yet  within  the  various  types  and  special  doc- 
trines a  large  amount  of  higher  exegesis  has  been 
accomplished  by  Weiss,  Riehm,  Schultz,  Diestel,  Weif- 
fenbach,  and  others.  But  the  highest  exegesis  in  the 
comparison  of  types  and  their  arrangement  in  an  or- 
ganic system  with  a  unity  and  determining  principle  out 
of  which  all  originate,  and  to  which  they  return  their 
fruitage,  remains  comparatively  undeveloped.  Indeed 
the  study  of  the  particular  types,  especially  in  the  Old 
Testament,  must  be  conducted  still  further  and  to  more 
substantial  results  ere  the  highest  exegesis  can  fulfil  its 
task. 

The  genetic  and  the  inductive  methods  must  indeed 
combine  in  order  to  the  best  results.  They  must  co- 
operate in  every  writing,  in  the  treatment  of  every 
author,  of  every  period  and  of  the  whole.  They  must 
blend  in  harmony  throughout.  On  their  proper  combi- 
nation the  excellence  of  a  system  of  Biblical  Theology 
depends.  An  undue  emphasis  of  either  will  make  the 
system  defective  and  inharmonious. 

(4)  The  system  and  divisions  of  Biblical  TJieology. — 
These  are  determined  partly  by  the  material  itself,  but 
chiefly  by  the  methods  of  dealing  with  it.  We  must  make 
the  divisions  so  simple  that  they  may  be  adapted  to  the 
most  elementary  conceptions,  and  yet  comprehensive 
enough  to  embrace  the  most  fully  developed  conceptions, 
and  also  so  as  to  be  capable  of  a  simple  and  natural 
subdivision  in  the  advancing  periods.  In  order  to  this 
we  must  find  the  dominant  principle  of  the  entire  revela- 
tion and  make  our  historical  and  our  inductive  divisions 
in  accordance  with  it.  The  Divine  revelation  itself 
might  seem  to  be  this  determining  factor,  so  that  we 


THE  SYSTEM  AND  DIVISIONS  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY,    gl 

should  divide  historically  by  the  historical  development 
of  that  revelation,  and  synthetically  by  its  most  charac- 
teristic features.  But  this  divine  revelation  was  made 
to  intelligent  man  and  involved  thereby  an  active  appro- 
priation of  it  on  his  part,  both  as  to  its  form  and  sub- 
stance, so  that  from  this  point  of  view  we  might  divide 
historically  in  accordance  with  the  great  epochs  of  the 
appropriation  of  divine  revelation,  and  synthetically  by 
the  characteristic  features  of  that  appropriation.  From 
either  of  these  points  of  view,  however,  there  might  be 
— there  naturally  would  be,  an  undue  emphasis  of  the 
one  over  against  the  other  at  the  expense  of  a  complete 
and  harmonious  representation.  We  need  some  princi- 
ple that  will  enable  us  to  combine  the  subject  and  the 
object — God  and  man — in  the  unity  of  its  conception. 
Such  a  principle  is  happily  afforded  us  in  the  Revelation 
itself,  so  distinctly  brought  out  that  it  has  been  histori- 
cally recognized  in  the  names  given  to  the  two  great  sec- 
tions of  the  Scriptures,  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ments or  Covenants.  The  Covenant  is  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  divine  revelation,  to  which  the  divine 
revelation  commits  its  treasures  and  from  which  man 
continually  draws  upon  them.  The  Covenant  has  a  great 
variety  of  forms  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  but  the  most 
essential  and  comprehensive  form  is  that  assumed  in  the 
Mosaic  Covenant  at  Sinai  which  becomes  the  Old  Cove- 
nant, pre-eminently,  and  over  against  that  is  placed  the 
New  Covenant  of  the  Messiah  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  the 
great  historical  division  becomes  the  Theology  of  the  Old 
Covenant  and  the  Theology  of  the  New  Covenant. 

The  Covenant  must  also  determine  the  synthetic  di- 
visions. The  Covenant  is  a  union  and  communion  ef- 
fected between  God  and  Man.  It  involves  a  personal 
relationship  which  it  originates  and  maintains  by  cer- 


82  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY. 

tain  events  and  institutions.  This  is  Religion.  The 
Covenant  and  its  relations,  man  apprehends  as  an  intel- 
ligent being  with  meditation,  reflection,  and  reasoning. 
All  this  he  comprehends  in  doctrines,  which  he  appre- 
hends and  believes  and  maintains  as  his  faith.  These 
doctrines  will  embrace  the  three  general  topics  of  God, 
of  Man,  and  of  Redemption.  The  Covenant  still  further 
has  to  do  with  man  as  a  moral  being,  imposing  moral 
obligations  upon  him  with  reference  to  God  and  man 
and  the  creatures  of  God.  All  these  are  comprehended 
under  the  general  term  Ethics.  These  distinctions  ap- 
ply equally  well  to  all  the  periods  of  divine  revelation ; 
they  are  simple,  they  are  comprehensive,  they  are  all- 
pervading.  Indeed  they  interpenetrate  one  another,  so 
that  many  prefer  to  combine  the  three  under  the  one 
term  Theology,  and  then  treat  of  God  and  Man  and  the 
union  of  God  and  Man  in  redemption,  in  each  division 
by  itself  with  reference  to  religious,  ethical,  and  doc- 
trinal questions  ;  but  it  is  easier  and  more  thorough- 
going to  keep  them  apart,  even  at  the  expense  of  look- 
ing at  the  same  thing  at  times  successively  from  three 
different  points  of  view. 

From  these  more  general  divisions  we  may  advance 
to  such  subdivisions,  as  may  be  justified  in  the  suc- 
cessive periods  of  Biblical  Theology,  both  on  the  his- 
toric and  synthetic  sides,  and,  indeed,  without  anticipa- 
tion. 

The  relation  between  the  historical  and  the  synthetic 
divisions  maybe  variously  viewed.  Thus  Ewald,  in  his 
Biblical  Theology,  makes  the  historical  divisions  so  en- 
tirely subordinate  as  to  treat  of  each  topic  of  theology 
by  itself  in  its  history.  The  difficulty  of  this  method 
is,  that  it  does  not  sufficiently  show  the  relative  devel- 
opment of  doctrines,  and  their  constant  action  and  re- 


THE  SYSTEM  AND  DIVISIONS  OF  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.    §3 

action  upon  one  another  in  the  successive  periods.  It 
may  be  of  advantage  for  thoroughness  in  anyone  depart- 
ment to  take  that  topic  by  itself  and  work  it  out  in  its 
historical  development ;  but  in  a  comprehensive  course 
of  Biblical  Theology  the  interests  of  the  whole  cannot 
be  sacrificed  for  the  particular  sections.  They  must  be 
adjusted  to  one  another  in  their  historical  development 
in  the  particular  periods.  Hence  it  will  be  necessary  to 
determine  in  each  period :  (i)  the  development  of  each 
particular  doctrine  by  itself,  as  it  starts  from  the  gen- 
eral principle,  and  then  (2)  to  sum  up  the  general  re- 
sults before  passing  over  into  another  period. 

It  will  also  be  found  that  Theology  does  not  unfold 
in  one  single  line,  but  in  several,  from  several  different 
points  of  view,  and  in  accordance  with  several  different 
types.  It  will  therefore  be  necessary  on  the  one  side 
ever  to  keep  these  types  distinct,  and  yet  to  show  their 
unity  as  one  organism.  Thus  in  the  Pentateuch  the 
great  types  of  the  Jahvist,  the  two  Elohists,  and  the 
Deuteronomist,  will  be  distinctly  traced  until  they  com- 
bine in  the  one  organism  of  our  Pentateuch,  presenting 
the  fundamental  TJwrah  of  Israel.  In  the  historical 
books  the  Prophetic  and  Levitical  historians  will  be 
distinguished  and  compared  for  a  higher  unity.  The 
three  great  types — the  psalmists,  wise  men,  and  proph- 
ets— will  be  discriminated,  the  variations  within  the 
types  carefully  studied  and  compared,  and  then  the 
types  themselves  brought  into  harmony,  and  at  last  the 
whole  Old  Testament  presented  as  an  organic  whole. 
The  New  Testament  will  then  be  considered  in  the 
forerunners  of  Christ ;  then  the  four  types  in  which  the 
evangelists  present  the  Theology  of  Jesus,  each  by  it- 
self, in  comparison  with  the  others,  and  as  a  whole. 
The  Apostolic  Theology  will  be  traced  from  its  origin 


84  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGF. 

at  Pentecost  in  its  subsequent  division  into  the  three 
great  types,  the  Jewish  Christian  of  Peter,  James,  and 
Jude;  the  Gentile  Christian  of  Paul,  Luke,  and  the 
epistle  to  the  Hebrews;  and,  finally,  the  Johannean  of 
the  gospels,  epistle,  and  apocalypse  of  John ;  and  the 
whole  considered  in  the  unity  of  the  New  Testament ; 
and  then,  as  the  last  thing,  the  whole  Bible  will  be  consid 
ered,  showing  not  only  the  unity  of  the  theology  of 
Christ  and  His  apostles,  but  also  the  unity  of  the  the- 
ology of  Moses  and  David  and  all  the  prophets,  with 
the  theology  of  Jesus  and  His  apostles,  as  each  distinct 
theology  takes  its  place  in  the  advancing  system  of  di- 
vine revelation,  all  conspiring  to  the  completion  of  a 
perfect,  harmonious,  symmetrical  organism,  the  infal- 
lible expression  of  God's  will,  character,  and  being  to 
His  favored  children.  At  the  same  time,  the  religion 
of  each  period  and  of  the  whole  Bible  will  be  set  in  the 
midst  of  the  other  religions  of  the  world,  so  that  it  will 
appear  as  the  divine  grace  ever  working  in  humanity, 
and  its  sacred  records  as  the  true  lamp  of  the  world, 
holding  forth  the  light  of  life  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
world. 


DR.    BRIGGS'    WORKS. 

American  Presbyterianism.  Its  Origin 
and  Early  History,  together  with  an  Appendix 
of  Letters  and  Documents,  many  of  which  have 
recently  been  discovered.  Crown  8vo,  with 
maps, $3.00 

Messianic  Prophecy.  The  Prediction  of 
the  Fulfilment  of  Redemption  through  the  Mes- 
siah. A  critical  study  of  the  Messianic  passages 
of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  order  of  their  de- 
velopment.    Crown  8vo,    ....     $2.50 

Biblical  Study.  Its  Principles,  Methods,  and 
History  of  its  Branches.     Crown  8vo,       .     $2.50 

Whither  ?  A  Theological  Question  for  the  Times. 
Crown  8vo,         .         .  .         .         .         .     $1.75 


How  Shall  we  Revise  the  Westminster 

Confession  of  Faith?  A  Bundle  of  Papers. 
By  Drs.  Briggs,  Evans,  White,  Vincent,  Park- 
hurst,  Hamilton,  and  Thompson.  i2mo,  paper, 
50  cents  ;  cloth,  .....     $1.00 


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